Aurora College to cut upgrading programs in N.W.T. communities, dozens of jobs
Union says 47 unionized jobs will be affected
Aurora College plans to shut down its 19 community learning centres in the N.W.T. by June 30 and rethink how it offers academic upgrading.
The move will affect 47 unionized jobs, according to the Union of Northern Workers.
The college said in a news release Thursday that it has been seeing low enrolment at its community learning centres — locations where residents in communities have been able to go for the past 25 years to do academic upgrading and access courses and training.
"The current delivery model has been in place for a few decades and has become prohibitively expensive, outdated, and ineffective," the college's release says.
It says the college would focus instead on offering upgrading related to "academic pre-requisites" for college programs.
It is also withdrawing from its partnership with Inclusion N.W.T. on its literacy outreach centre in Yellowknife, which offers adult and family literacy classes.
The college's news release quotes board chair Joseph Handley as saying the college has to be "efficient, effective and sustainable" as it transforms into a polytechnic.
Aurora College has three campuses in the N.W.T.: in Inuvik, Fort Smith and Yellowknife. Its community learning centres, by comparison, operate in 19 other communities across the territory.
Job cuts
The Union of Northern Workers said in its own news release Thursday it had been informed that 47 unionized jobs would be affected in all.
"The Union of Northern Workers is strongly opposed to any such cuts and are concerned first and foremost for the workers at Aurora College who will be affected," wrote union president Gayla Thunstrom on Thursday.
"The impact on their livelihoods, families, and mental health will be incalculable."
The college said those cuts could include 31 indeterminate and term employees, as well as casual and vacant positions being closed.
It said it plans to work with students who are affected to help them review their options for academic upgrading.