RDP President Stuart Cullum speaks to members of the Red Deer and District Chamber of Commerce on Monday, December 5, 2022. (rdnewsNOW/Sheldon Spackman)

By Sheldon Spackman

Key Roles To Play

RDP president shares vision for future with Red Deer Chamber members

Dec 6, 2022 | 11:01 AM

The president of Red Deer Polytechnic (RDP) shared his emerging vision for the future with members of the Red Deer and District Chamber of Commerce Monday, alluding to how the institution and local business community can work together in playing key roles for the region’s economic prosperity moving forward.

Stuart Cullum says Red Deer Polytechnic has an important role to play supporting industry and the companies of the Chamber in their labour, productivity, and agility challenges.

“So I talked about how we can address that through education training through our international programming which has grown significantly over the last year,” explains Cullum. “But as well as through establishing innovation ecosystems or environments for applied research and where companies can come and get their problems solved. But also, environments that create opportunities for training and education of that next generation of talent so that we can provide what our companies need in this region in terms of the skills, competencies and the talent that’s needed for them to be successful.”

Cullum highlighted the need for additional labour throughout central Alberta, in addition to skilled talent.

“We can address both in terms of the way in which we educate and train and even draw students to the region,” says Cullum. “We can help provide that and through our international programming, we can help with drawing an international workforce as well. That’s obviously part of the solution.”

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Cullum says the more programming RDP can deliver and the more students they can attract to their institution, the better.

“We do intend to grow as an institution. We intend to grow within existing programing and then grow new programming that’s needed,” he shares. “So that will help by graduating people and talent into the region who can be employed and fill some of those labour challenge needs.”

“On the productivity side,” he continues. “I think getting our learners involved in innovative environments and work integrated learning, it gives them the kinds of skill sets, problem solving, critical thinking skill sets that are needed to help companies solve some of the significant challenges they have as technology is brought into their world. It just becomes more and more competitive.”

Cullum says thinking about the way in which work is done and how industry operates is another area of focus moving forward.

“We want to be a place where a lot of those models, whether they be economic models, business models, work models, can be tested and developed and tried and where our students can gain access to those so that when they do go into industry, they’re coming with lots of different skills, both technical skills, as well as critical thinking and problem solving skills that can benefit their companies.”

Cullum acknowledges the significant economic and social impact that RDP has on the community.

“Even just in terms of the fact that we’re a substantial employer within the region, but we also have a significant impact in the sense that we are developing and retaining the talent within the region that’s’ needed for Red Deer and Red Deer region to be prosperous, economically and socially.”

Cullum describes RDP’s program mix as very broad, citing humanities, social sciences, liberal arts programming, all subject areas that are critically important to the social fabric of central Alberta.

“So to be able to graduate students who have come out of those programs who are going to stay in this community and continue to support its social vibrancy and cultural vibrancy is something that I think is really important to how we contribute to the community.”

A $16 million dollar expansion of the Centre for Innovation in Manufacturing Technology Access Centre (CIM-TAC) is also in the plans, adds Cullum.

“It’s bursting at the seams with activity,” states Cullum. “It’s doing a tremendous amount of partnerships and working with a lot of companies. So in a way, it’s at capacity and needs to expand in order to increase its impact. So we are envisioning what that needs to look like and we’re in discussions with government and others to sort out how that expansion can be activated in the next couple of years.”

Highlights as a polytechnic over the past year:

• Five new degrees
• Five new micro-credentials for upskilling and reskilling
• 6,300+ full and part-time students in more than 80 programs (credit and skilled trades)
• 3.500+ non-credit learners in more than 45 offerings (extended education)

Internation Growth

• 436 learners (2021-2022)
• 62% growth over last year
• From 29 countries
• Across 35 RDP programs

20-27% of international learners become permanent residents (Statistics Canada)