Regional Workforce Development in Rural British Columbia

This 3-year project will utilize British Columbia's Columbia Basin-Boundary region as a rural case study region to explore how community colleges can work alongside a network of learning and economic development partners to stimulate innovation and support collaborative learning. The research will contribute to a better understanding of the practical application of New Regionalism, which calls for further investigation of the processes of learning and innovation in a regional setting. In an effort to advance regional development in BC and contribute to the academic debate, overarching research objectives include:

• Support evidence-based workforce development, decision-making, and planning and provide opportunities for innovation and collaborative learning;
• Explore the emerging role of educational institutions in promoting and supporting the life cycle of knowledge, including co-creation and mobilization across sectors using a learning regions approach;
• Explore the role of students, educators, companies and community partners as change agents in workforce innovation in rural regional socio-economic development through applied research projects;
• Contribute to the New Regionalism academic debate and its calls to better understand processes of learning and innovation in a rural regional setting.

Project lead is T.MacDonald, RDI Selkirk

This project is funded through the SSHRC Community and College Social Innovation Fund.