FORT WILLIAM FIRST NATION — Fort William First Nation is reminding its college and university-bound members they only have until Thursday to apply to a wide-ranging scholarship and bursary fund specifically for Indigenous students.
“Just one application (to the Indspire fund) gives you access to hundreds of bursaries and scholarships,” said a social media post from FWFN’s education department.
“Get ready to simplify your life with the help you need and apply.”
Headquartered at Six Nations of the Grand River in southern Ontario, the Indspire charity provided 7,500 bursaries and scholarships to Canadian Indigenous students between 2022 and 2023. The value of the awards in that period was more than $27.5 million, according to the charity’s news release.
One of the agency’s major funding partners is London, England-based mining giant Rio Tinto, which since 2008 has provided Indspire with $2.5 million.
“Indspire has been around for a while,” Fort William First Nation education manager Myra Bannon said on Friday. “It’s not run through us, but we share information about it.”
Efforts are ongoing to help Fort William students and young adults get into the workforce in and around Thunder Bay, whether it be in construction, mining, commercial trucking, the food industry or heavy-equipment operation.
Lauren Waller, the band’s employment and training coordinator, said three band members who recently completed an eight-week course to become certified construction craft workers are now employed.
Young people are eager to work. Waller said she advised one 16-year-old interested in the food-service training program she’d be best to finish high school first.
Meanwhile, on Friday, Ontario’s NDP trashed the Conservative government for neglecting publicly-funded colleges and universities instead of “cracking down on private, fly-by-night strip mall career colleges and diploma mills that are taking advantage of students and our system.”
“It was the Conservatives who lifted the moratorium on public-private colleges in 2019,” the NDP noted in a news release.
In a separate news release, the government acknowledged there have been “challenges.”
The current situation stems “from the recent spike in students coming to Canada, including predatory practices by bad-actor recruiters, misinformation regarding citizenship and permanent residency, false promises of guaranteed employment, and inadequate housing for students,” said a colleges and universities ministry news release.
Among other measures, the government promised to ensure programs being offered are meeting labour-market needs and Introduce a moratorium on new public college-private partnerships while strengthening oversight mechanisms.
More information about the Indspire scholarship fund is available on the indspire.ca website.
The Chronicle Journal / Local Journalism Initiative
