It's been asked for by many people around the North for years and now it's here.
The Recreation North Training Program will be live and ready for everyone to take part in beginning on Nov. 4. The pilot program wrapped up this past May and saw 24 students across all three territories choose from 16 different learning modules in topics such as programming, marketing and funding, among others. Those modules will continue be part of the program.
The pilot was open to anyone who works in recreation as a paid staff member, volunteers in the recreation field or anyone who is thinking about getting into recreation. Once the pilot was completed, feedback was given by the participants on what worked and what didn't.
Amanda Grobeckker, the program's co-ordinator, said she came in halfway through the pilot but from what she read and heard, it was beneficial for everyone involved.
“People really enjoyed connecting with other people from different communities and sharing their experiences,” she said. “They seemed to experience a lot of the same things and that's valuable because now they know it's not just them that experienced something.”
The pilot program was done completely online with no in-person instruction whatsoever but one of the recommendations from those who completed the pilot was a hope of more in-person learning.
“We will do some in-person learning but my focus will be on going into communities and helping get people set up online and make them comfortable using the online program,” she said.
One of the concerns from Nunavut was that the Internet is not as reliable as it is in larger centres and not everyone would be able to complete the modules.
To help with that, they will be doing a lot of delivery on a program called Moodle, said Grobeckker.
“It's technology that doesn't use up a lot of bandwidth because we understand Internet can be an issue in smaller communities,” she said.
She added that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs uses Moodle through its School of Community Government and Aurora College also uses it for distance learning.
With the program being fully launched next month, it's no longer a closed shop to those inside the recreation and sport sector and everyone will be able to sign up for it.
“Anyone who's interested can do it now,” she said. “It could be wellness workers, librarians that offer programs, volunteers in recreation. A wide range of people use recreation in their work and we want everyone who's thinking about this to sign up.”
Each of the modules takes about two weeks to complete and not everyone has to complete the program.
Grobeckker said people can sign up for as little or as much as they want but there is an exception.
“Anyone who's working toward a certificate of completion needs to complete everything and it takes about a year to do,” she said. “People can pick and choose their learning events but if they've signed up for the certificate program, they have to complete everything.”