The Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association is partnering up with Southeast College to offer a specialized program for municipal employees. Called Municipal Management Essentials, the program is geared towards the employees and elected officials across the province.

Sheena Onrait, the manager of marketing and communications with the College, explained it is building on an existing program the school already offers.

“We introduced the municipal management essentials program with SARM earlier last year, and then SUMA had a look at the program, and thought ‘You know what? This would be great for our employees to help build their capacity in our municipalities as well',” Onrait said.

While Southeast College has campuses in communities like Weyburn, Estevan, and Moosomin, the program will be offered across the province. This includes locations like Regina, Saskatoon, North Battleford and Yorkton.

“This is a tremendous opportunity and our College is honored to partner with SUMA to develop and implement this municipal training program across Saskatchewan,” Southeast College President and CEO Dion McGrath said in a written release.

The training programs will generally be held over the course of one, or two days, with a variety of topics covered.

“It’s about building capacity amongst their employees, and having them be a stronger workforce,” explained Onrait.

There are three streams of education provided through the program. There is one specifically for foremen, one for administration staff, and one that covers safety programming.

“We just really appreciate that we’ve been able to work on building these partnerships with both SARM and SUMA, and other organizations that have been involved as well,” Onrait said. “It’s an opportunity to help the municipalities, both urban and rural, to grow their centers, and to better serve the ratepayers of all their communities.”