The success of the Northern Medical Program in helping northern B.C. communities recruit and retain locally-trained doctors is exactly what Janine North envisions for a new local government management internship program spearheaded by UNBC and Northern Development Initiative Trust (NDIT).
Northern B.C. municipalities are facing increasing challenges recruiting trained professionals for administrative positions. North, the chief executive officer of NDIT, is convinced the one-year internship program will create sustainable municipal government work opportunities for the best and brightest graduates of UNBC's programs in environmental planning, commerce, finance, geography, political science, public administration/community development, and human resource management.
"We know we have a great university here and we felt the internship program gives the graduates of UNBC the ability to leverage the education skills in communities throughout central and northern B.C.," said North. "Our goal is to train graduates for careers in local government and to keep northerners working and enjoying the lifestyle of the north. In essence, it is the local government equivalent to the Northern Medical Program. They will spend a year being mentored by chief administrative officers and trying a whole range of roles and doing projects with managers in local government in communities."
For the past four years, NDIT has sponsored six-month internships specifically geared toward economic development. The new program covers a full year and is much broader in its scope to encompass all levels of local government.
After a month-long group training program at the downtown Prince George NDIT office to brush up on skills in communication, leadership, economic development, finance, marketing and social media, the 12 graduates will go to their respective job placements. For the next 11 months, they will work on project-related tasks for municipalities in Prince George, Burns Lake, Mackenzie, McBride, Valemount, Vanderhoof, and Fort St. James.
"In these small towns, anything under a population of 20,000, there just aren't enough staff to specialize, you have to be a generalist who can handle all the management tasks in a small community as you move through your career," said North.
Krystin St. Jean, 25, grew up in Burns Lake and after an eight-year absence she's returning to her home community in June to find practical uses for her degrees in sciences and community planning. In the wake of the Babine Forest Products sawmill explosion and fire that destroyed the town's major employer, her hometown is on the rebound, awaiting reconstruction of the mill. St. Jean says she will lean on her planning expertise to work on the Burns Lake downtown revitalization project and update the town's official community plan.
"It's become a much different town in the last year-and-a-half but it's amazing to see how the town has pulled together and built itself up after these challenges," St. Jean said. "It's really taking off and I'm very excited to go to Burns Lake and be a part of this to work with my home community. This internship is a great opportunity because not only does it expose me to a lot of interesting and unique challenges in the north, but I get to work with the upper management to promote and better my community, rather than sitting in some dark office paper-pushing or processing applications."
Political science graduate Gavin Ireland, 26, has a job waiting for him with the district of Vanderhoof. Originally from Dawson Creek, he'd much rather stay in the north than join the long lines of underemployed political interns in Victoria trying to find permanent jobs.
"I was absolutely terrified when I was about to graduate," said Ireland. "You hear all these horror stories about people graduating and looking for four of five years and can't find anything and by that time, their degree is out of date and they have to go back to school. I jumped on this and it's just an amazing opportunity. Political science is a lot of theory, so it's nice to have a position where I can actually do something, not just talk about it. It's nice I don't have to leave the north, and Vanderhoof is so small I'll get to literally do everything."
All candidates for the internship program must show a desire and commitment to staying in a central or northern B.C. community. Grades, communications skills and motivation are qualifying determinants. Each of the communities involved in the program had to prepare a work plan to outline the duties of the interns over the year. The chief administrative officers of those communities spent a day with the interns to prioritize goals.
The first $35,000 of each intern's yearly salary (75 per cent of the cost) will come from a grant from one of the NDIT's four regional accounts - Prince George, northeast, northwest, and Cariboo-Chilcotin -- and the respective communities will cover the balance of their wages. Each community will provide work benefits and a week of professional development in Victoria with the Local Government Management Association of B.C.
