By Cassandra Szabo, 1st year MDP student
In
addition to my work at the Atoskiwin Training and Employment Center of
Excellence (ATEC) doing co-ordination, proposal writing and programming I have
been working on a research project that is in partnership with ATEC and the
Manitoba Research Alliance (MRA). The project's title is “Aboriginal Employment and the North: An Examination of Aboriginal
Labour Training and Labor Inclusivity at the Atoskiwin Training and Employment
Center (ATEC) in Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation, Manitoba, 2006-2020”. The
main researchers of this project are Henk Warnar of University College of the
North and Shauna MacKinnon of MRA and the University of Winnipeg.
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| ATEC hallway |
The aim of
this project is to show the stories and journeys of students that have attended
ATEC. MRA has previously conducted studies examining Indigenous peoples' access
and outcomes to training, education, and employment and these studies have
shown that the most successful programs are ones that are small, holistic, and
community based.
Seeing as ATEC has now been in operation for 10 years it is
positioned well to be used as an example of how this type of holistic and
community based training functions and the specific benefits of it. ATEC has
created a holistic model that takes into account all needs of the student, and
it is located in the First Nation community so students do not need to leave their homes
and families. The methodology of this research was decided upon with the staff
at ATEC and it was decided that it should be as qualitative as possible.
My role in
this research project came to fruition because I would be spending a
significant amount of time on location with the students from various programs,
and so I was offered the opportunity to join the project and conduct interviews
as well as demographic surveys. I have learnt a lot from being involved in this
project, many technical research processes and proper research protocol in a
First Nation community.
When I
first arrived in the beginning of May I believed I could get the interviews
started and completed by June, however I realized that this was not going to
happen- my first interview was not until late June. I realized the importance
of making connections with individuals and building up relationships so that
the students knew who I was and that they could trust me. I also realized that
the researcher can be very influential in an interview, and the interviewer
effect is a very real phenomenon. After listening to some of the first
interviews I did, I came up with better strategies to ask questions in ways
that weren’t too leading.
After
conducting 25 interviews with students of all various programs operating at
ATEC it is clear to see that the training center has changed the lives of all
of these students in some way- and that this model does in fact produce high
success rates. Many students report having higher self-esteem, many feel like
they can go on to do more education and training, and many say that they would
never have attempted to go to school had it not been for the people at ATEC
that know them and encourage them to come to school.
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