Okanagan Indian Band
Okanagan Indian Band
Contact Okanagan Indian Band Employment Training Coordinator:
The Okanagan Indian Band and Okanagan Training Development Council support Indigenous clients to explore job or career opportunities, educational aspirations and help to advance training or aid in sustainable employment by offering support and funding opportunities.
We have had an extremely busy year and have had many successes within our community that deserve to be highlighted and celebrated. The first I’d like to highlight is Jenelle. Please read below what she had to say.
“I chose to take my Masters Certificate in Project Management because project management became an interest of mine while I was taking my degree. I always look ahead to plan my next steps, and I have a personal five- year plan that I update every year. While I was taking my business degree, I was looking at careers, project management is something that caught my interest. I tried to include it in my professional development at work, but it was denied. When I began working for myself, I started investigating ways to get the training. The reason I chose this program is because a professor of mine suggested it, and I was able to learn from numerous project management professionals that had decades of experience. I have been working towards the goal of getting my Project Management Professional designation for 7 years.
Remember, not everything goes perfectly to plan but if you set a goal and consistently work to achieve it, you will get there. Don’t give up!”
The Okanagan Indian Band has also had a considerable success with aiding a bunch of varying individuals throughout the year. Some of our accomplishments are as follows:
- First Nations Mental Health First Aid – we had 23 individuals sign up for the first workshop and we were fortunate enough to be able to host 2 workshops.
- We hosted an Indigenous Tourism BC (ITBC) training. At this training participants gained their Food safe, serving it right, WHIMIS, Super Host, and how to do traditional storytelling. We had twelve members
- Three of our members – Greg, Reid and Sapion have completed their UXO certifications and have gained employment with MRS doing Unexploded Ordnance Removal within our ancestral lands as well as travelling throughout Canada during the colder seasons.
You can have a more extensive look at what that all entails here à https://www.mrsmanagement.ca/projects - Two of our members have completed and are in the process of completing their Career Development Practitioner certifications.
- Neven successfully completed his Plumbing Foundations with the Okanagan College
- Joe is successfully working towards getting his Red Seal in Plumbing
- Shenay has continued to go above and beyond and has successfully completed her Place & Nature based learning for her Masters Program.
- A number of our band members have achieved their Early Childhood Educator certificates.
- We have multiple band members obtaining their nsyilxcən language fluency.
- Anthony & Justin are both in the process of achieving their Bachelor of Software Engineering at the University of Victoria.
- We have funded almost thirty people varying from Youth to Adults for driving lessons.
- We were also happily able to help multiple clients gain access to technology for their school studies through our Access to Technology program (A2T).
Another member who I would like to showcase is Aidan Lawrence, with his JIBC Youth Career camp & Emergency services. Read below for what Aidan had to say.
Success & Inspiration- B Y A I D A N L AWR E N C E
“As a kid I always looked up to emergency services, my family has some emergency services background as well so once I saw the JIBC camp I knew I had to attend. So, I sent in my application and after about a week JIBC got back to me asking for more information regarding where I'm staying while attending the week- long program. We got our funding from the OKIB/OTDC and JIBC both pitching in. The first challenge I faced when going to the camp was the unfamiliarity and awkwardness of being in a quiet room with a bunch of people I don't know. That challenge soon faded as we all started to warm up and began to talk to each other. The last challenge was trying to find interest in careers that didn't interest me as much as the others. The solution I found to these challenges was starting up conversations about where we're from and comparing how our reservations look and the social life of them. The solution to my second challenge was having a mindset that every emergency service is important even if you aren't actively on the field. The results that I obtained is a new sense of respect and meaning behind emergency services. I learned a lot about the process of becoming a police officer or paramedic and that is useful knowledge I hope to use later on.”
The OKIB Employment & Training Coordinators office has been extremely busy this year and is going to remain busy as we look toward the coming year. We have identified that there is a strong need for Trades, Early Childhood Educators and Health Care personnel for our Labour Market within B.C.
We will happily continue to assist any who walk through our door, and try to create as many opportunities as possible for our band members to continue to grow and move forward.
Submitted by Kaity Laverman and Chris Ross (OKIB Employment Services)
Read our entire annual report in the: 
OKIB Annual Report 2023-24
Past Reports