RRC Polytech will operate on holiday hours from noon on Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024, through Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025.
During the break, the Notre Dame and Exchange District campuses will be closed and there will be no access. Regular hours of operation will resume at 6am on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025.
We wish everyone a safe and healthy holiday season!
RRC Polytech welcomed Manitobans to the Notre Dame Campus today, as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of its Research Partnerships & Innovation (RPI) enterprise.
A gateway to applied research since its establishment in 2004, RPI connects industry and community partners with RRC Polytech’s comprehensive array of facilities, technology and expertise in collaborative projects that bring innovative ideas to life.
As part of the event, guests toured RRC Polytech’s research labs and areas, saw demonstrations of its leading-edge technology and engaged with faculty, professional research staff and students to learn how applied research projects connect all areas of the College and are driving our province into the future.
“As Manitoba’s polytechnic, RRC Polytech is committed to creating change through innovation and using the knowledge and tools that we offer to benefit our communities and the industries that our graduates will soon be leading,” says Fred Meier, RRC Polytech’s President and CEO.
“Applied research projects drive progress while providing students with invaluable experience through work-integrated learning. We’re eager to build on the incredible success stories we’ve shared with our partners over the last 20 years and to explore new opportunities to find solutions for real-world challenges.”
With 135 researchers and more than 600 students directly involved annually, along with applied research training enabled by research infrastructure in more than 60 courses, RRC Polytech is consistently named a top research college in Canada.
The College’s three NSERC-funded Technology Access Centres (TACs) and other various research facilities and resources are focal points for advancing knowledge, fostering collaboration and accelerating commercialization — with thousands of square feet of space to develop, test and create solutions to support small, medium and large enterprises and communities. Read More →
Health-care education at RRC Polytech enters a new chapter today with the opening of its new Interdisciplinary Health and Community Services Simulation Centre. This facility, the first of its kind in Manitoba, will begin training the province’s future health leaders in January.
The Simulation Centre is a groundbreaking interdisciplinary facility that will revolutionize health-care training in Manitoba. It’s the first centre in Manitoba to focus on nursing, allied health professions and community services, with 16,630 square feet of state-of-the-art learning space at RRC Polytech’s Notre Dame Campus.
“The Simulation Centre will maximize education opportunities and provide immersive and collaborative training for our health and community care programs,” says Fred Meier, the College’s President and CEO. “As one of the largest trainers of health-care professionals in the province, this is an exciting new frontier in how we can better train and prepare students to be confident in their careers and make an impact in our communities throughout the province.
“Simulation is critical, as it ensures students in all programs have access to immediate experiential training opportunities vital to graduation, gaining experience that helps better prepare them for the clinical environment and being job ready on day one.”
Using state-of-the art, high-fidelity simulation equipment and live actors to create small- and large-scale activities and mock scenarios, the Simulation Centre will provide students from 13 programs with real-world experiences that mirror the realities they will face in the workplace. These training opportunities will equip them to fill vital and in-demand career roles in Manitoba’s health-care system from their first day on the job. Read More →
Transformational gift — the largest in RRC Polytech’s history — positions the College to produce the talent and expertise vital to the continued success and growth of Manitoba’s creative industries.
For more than 70 years, creative thinkers have explored ideas and sharpened their skills at RRC Polytech. Today, a $15-million gift from the Schroeder Foundation paves the way for continued growth and opportunity in the creative arts for the College, its students and the province of Manitoba.
Creative industries are at the core of RRC Polytech, and they are growing in Manitoba thanks to a local talent pool that continues to thrive.
The Schroeder Institute of Entertainment and Media Arts has been created to support those industries — and the province — in reaching the next level in this period of growth by ensuring that a pipeline of newly skilled local talent continues to flow and fill crucial industry roles, while engaging more deeply with industry partners and undertaking exciting opportunities to foster innovation through applied research.
Manitoba is increasingly becoming more competitive in creative areas across the prairies, the country and beyond. More productions are being filmed in Winnipeg and throughout the province, and more creative businesses are opening their doors while local companies are making their mark beyond our borders. Local training and talent are crucial to the success of the businesses that choose to operate here, and that is where RRC Polytech — and the Schroeder Institute — come in.
“RRC Polytech and the Schroeder Foundation have a shared vision for the future and what we can make possible through education, collaboration and research,” says Fred Meier, the College’s President and CEO.
“The Schroeder Foundation’s decision to make this tremendous investment in RRC Polytech reflects that there are visionaries invested in our community who recognize the value of what we are doing here to support students on their way into careers in creative industries. This gift today will enable us to create so many more opportunities for Manitobans and our creative industries together.” Read More →
Two RRC Polytech grads were recently honoured for work in their respective journalism careers.
Gabrielle Piché and Austin Grabish are both graduates of the College’s Creative Communications (CreComm) program, which many in the industry point to as the launching pad for their careers.
Piché (2020), a reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press, was one of two recipients of this year’s Hon. Edward Goff Memorial Prize for Young Canadian Journalists from News Media Canada. The award recognizes her as a top young journalist in the country, something she attributes to her college training and early work experience.
“Before entering CreComm, I didn’t know how to write a proper news article,” says Piché (shown above). “The program provided robust journalism training and exposed me to other communications sectors. The best part, I think, was being surrounded by fun and creative classmates and knowledgeable instructors who genuinely cared about your success.”
Piché’s internship through the program is what launched her career at the Free Press. No stranger to work-related accolades, she previously won the Eric and Jack Wells Excellence in Journalism Award while completing her joint Communications degree through RRC Polytech and the University of Winnipeg. Read More →
Last month, the first cohort of students in Hollow Water (Waanibiigaaw) First Nation’s Educational Assistant program gathered alongside their instructor and family members to celebrate their graduation with a ceremony and feast.
The community-centred celebration allowed the grads to share their accomplishments with loved ones and community members. They were gifted materials from their community to create their own ribbon skirts to wear to the ceremony.
Instructor Patricia Stouffer says it was important to the grads to take part in a ceremony, not just for themselves but so young people could see the accomplishments possible for them in their community.
Hollow Water First Nation is a tightknit, welcoming community located on the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg, over 200 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. Stouffer says her students’ ability to remain close to home while studying was crucial to their success in the program.
“One of the biggest things is having support from home and not experiencing culture shock,” she explains. “It’s hard enough to transition into education, and having this opportunity right in the community opened doors for the students who were a part of this program.
“Being in their community allowed them to keep their values and connection to family alive and well throughout their education and get the support that only being close to home can provide.”
Chloe Seymour is one of the eight graduating students and is already working right in her community at Wanipigow School. She says it felt nice to be recognized at the ceremony and for her community members to see how hard she’d worked — echoing Stouffer’s sentiment that close proximity to educational opportunities is crucial.
Seymour held two part-time jobs while in the program — jobs she would’ve had to give up if she’d been required to travel to another part of the province to complete the program. It was also important to her that she could set an example for kids in Hollow Water.
“I’m glad I got to show the youth in my community that they don’t have to leave their home to continue their education, and that they can be successful, just like I was,” she says.
RRC Polytech Nursing student Sophie Walker has received a $30,000 grant from the inaugural Canadian Colleges for a Resilient Recovery (C2R2) and Wawanesa Climate Champions: Youth Innovation Grant for her project, Climate Resilient Nursing.
“As a founding member of Canadian Colleges for Resilient Recovery, RRC Polytech has made a commitment to preparing students to use the skills they’ve learned and make real-world impacts,” says Dr. Christine Watson, RRC Polytech’s Vice-President, Academic and Co-Chair of the C2R2 Steering Committee.
“As a leading post-secondary institution, we play a vital role in advancing sustainability through our academic programs and applied research. Sophie’s project is an exciting reminder of how our students can help us move toward a more sustainable future. We are also very pleased that a Winnipeg-based organization such as Wawanesa has provided such a unique investment to support students’ research to positively impact climate action.”
Walker’s Climate Resilient Nursing project aims to address nursing professionals’ lack of capacity to address climate change–related health care system vulnerabilities and resilience. The project will increase climate awareness among nurses, help nursing students develop practical skills to become more climate conscious in their future careers and create a comprehensive resource guide for future students and instructors at RRC Polytech.
“I am very grateful to receive this grant and excited to dive deeper into the research,” says Walker. “I have been interested in research since my first year in nursing school back in late 2019, and in the last three weeks I’ve had incredible support from my instructors and researchers at RRC Polytech in finding an idea and creating the proposal.
“Receiving this grant means I can help to make a difference and leave a lasting change. It will also help me gain valuable experience for my future career.”
Walker worked with her Nursing instructors and with the College’s Research Partnerships & Innovation team on the project, which was inspired by instructor Jennifer Morin, who Walker says is passionate about the subject and has a wealth of knowledge that helped her with the application.
She is one of five Youth Innovation Grant recipients. Each grant is given to a student from a C2R2 partner institution to launch or enhance a climate adaptation or climate mitigation project. RRC Polytech is one of the founding partners of C2R2 and currently offers six micro-credential courses aimed at clean tech and social innovation.
RRC Polytech and Siemens, a global digital technology leader, have partnered to deliver the first courses and programs available to Manitobans through the College’s new Price Institute of Advanced Manufacturing and Mechatronics.
The Level 1 Siemens Mechatronic Systems Certification program — the first of its kind in Manitoba — is accepting registrations and is open to recent graduates of RRC Polytech’s manufacturing programs, as well as workers in the manufacturing industry who are looking to upskill and reskill. Students who complete the Level 1 program will also have the opportunity to enrol in Level 2 later in 2024.
“The Price Institute was established to meet the emerging needs of Manitoba’s manufacturing sector by providing opportunities for students and those currently employed in the sector to access leading-edge training and applied research,” says Fred Meier, President and CEO, RRC Polytech.
“These first offerings from the Price Institute present an exciting first step in answering the call for training that advances technology adoption across all areas of manufacturing and embeds Industry 4.0 concepts.”
Alongside the first offering of the Siemens program in Manitoba, the Price Institute will offer a suite of micro-credentials starting later this fall with an Introduction to Ethical Hacking and more offerings beginning in 2024 that include Cloud Computing, Data Analysis and Intro to IT Automation.
“Finding and retaining skilled talent is a priority for industries across the country,” says Joris Myny, Senior Vice-President, Digital Industries, Siemens Canada.
“To meet this demand, it is crucial that the tools, opportunities and networks are made available to students and to a current workforce looking to upskill. We congratulate RRC Polytech on the establishment of the Price Institute, and look forward to partnering in support of industry in Manitoba.”
The Manitoba chapter of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME) reported having 2,130 job vacancies in the third quarter of 2022, citing a shortage of advanced skills. These initial and future offerings through the Price Institute are essential to upskilling and reskilling to narrow the skills gap in this vital sector in Manitoba’s economy.
While these offerings are just the beginning, they represent the leading-edge subject matter and collaboration between industry and academia that Dr. Gerry Price envisioned would occur at the Price Institute.
For more information on RRC Polytech’s Institute of Advanced Manufacturing and Mechatronics, visit rrc.ca/priceinstitute.
To register and learn more about the Price Institute’s Siemens Mechatronics Systems and Certification program or our upcoming micro-credentials, visit rrc.ca/amm.
As Manitoba continues to grow, there’s no question that the demand for skilled tradespeople is as high as its ever been.
According to the province’s labour gap statistics, trades such as automotive service technicians, carpenters, electricians and construction labourers are some of the most in-need career paths over the next five years.
Trades, though, can be a male-dominated space. According to a 2020 study by BuildForce Canada, just five per cent of the 1.1 million trades people in Canada identify as female. While this is a significant increase from where the industry was 10 years ago (3.7 per cent in 2008), it shows just how important equal representation and creating space is when it comes to young women entering trades.
Enter the Girls Exploring Trades and Technology camp, or GETT. Started by RRC Polytech in 1999, GETT is a summer camp at the College’s Notre Dame Campus where instructors and staff help introduce young girls aged 12 to 14 to a variety of trades — free of charge.
“The girls get exposure to a whole lot of different non-traditional career options for them,” says Christina Lambert, who has been running the camps since 2006.
In a whirlwind four days, camp participants are introduced to plumbing, woodworking, cabinetmaking, welding, robotics, transportation, bricklaying, and more. At the end of their camp experience, each participant brings home a project made using experience earned in the camp: a desk lamp built with iron pipe. Read More →
A virtual connection between a patient and doctor sounds simple in concept. In execution, though, it’s a challenge from both medical and technological perspectives.
In Manitoba, that’s where QDoc comes in. The local startup has created a solution that’s taken off in the mainstream since its launch last year. And with software development help from RRC Polytech students along the way, co-founders Dr. Norman Silver and David Berkowits believe they have a service that is not only winning awards now, but is also set for rapid expansion in the near future.
Launched in May 2022, QDoc is an online application that connects patients to doctors in real-time. Thanks to a custom algorithm, patients can log in and request to see a doctor. QDoc then sends a message to doctors informing them that a patient is there to be seen, and the two can meet in an encrypted online appointment at a time that fits within both schedules.
Today, 90 doctors across several specialties are on QDoc, including general practitioners, emergency doctors, pediatricians, obstetricians and ophthalmologists. Silver says that annualized, QDoc is set to see 50,000 patients use their system in Manitoba alone in 2023.
“We’ve had great feedback,” he says. “From the individual patient side, it’s unbelievable to have access like that.
“Patients who may have had to drive hours to see a doctor, with QDoc that really isn’t necessary. Doctors can talk through things that are maybe more labour-intensive where the patient may otherwise need to go in, but all factors considered — could be a snowstorm, could be the middle of the night, could be a young kid in the equation — that kind of stuff, it’s much better to try something at home first.” Read More →
RRC Polytech campuses are located on the lands of Anishinaabe, Ininiwak, Anishininew, Dakota, and Dené, and the National Homeland of the Red River Métis.
We recognize and honour Treaty 3 Territory Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, the source of Winnipeg’s clean drinking water. In addition, we acknowledge Treaty Territories which provide us with access to electricity we use in both our personal and professional lives.