Palliser campus could be reaching out to new students

SIAST Palliser Campus could soon start issuing diplomas to residents of a tropical island chain in the southern hemisphere, east of Papua New Guinea.
    Earlier this month, Colin Beck, Solomon Islands high commissioner to Canada, toured SIAST Palliser Campus, accompanied by Mayor Dale McBain, SIAST director of business development and international partnership Dave Harvey and campus director Peter Lapointe, as well as Moose Jaw North MLA Warren Michelson.
    On Tuesday, Harvey told the Times-Herald the high commissioner is looking for western-certified training for residents of the Commonwealth nation, which consists of over 1,000 islands spread across 28,400 square kilometres — less than 1/20th the amount of Saskatchewan’s land.
    He said while the small nation of approximately 520,000 people currently must export students for training, SIAST Palliser Campus offers a service through which other schools can offer college-authorized programming.
    While this service is typically used by regional adult educational facilities throughout Saskatchewan, Harvey said SIAST also issued diplomas to approved schools in Vietnam, India and Mauritius (an island nation off the east coast of Madagascar).
    As part of this international brokering program, the Solomon Islands would be interested in the local college’s business and engineering courses.
    Harvey said Beck is just gathering information at this point. The nation is still looking at gathering funding from various sources, such as the United Nations, to help pay for the service.
    “He just wanted to know the basics and have a bit better understanding of what the school is about.”
    According to Harvey, Beck was very impressed with the school’s staff and facility, as well as Moose Jaw in general.
    Harvey said SIAST doesn’t know when it will find out if the Solomon Islands is interested in its services.