FNAESC–ICÉA Partnership
The research project titled "Improving Skills for Success Through the Realities and Cultural Values of First Nations Communities" is the result of a partnership between the First Nations Adult Education School Council (FNAESC) and ICÉA. This long-term initiative involves several phases and is supported by Employment and Social Development Canada.
Ultimately, this project aims to achieve the following three objectives:
- Design and validate a framework of generic socioemotional skills for First Nations through an action-research approach.
Expected result: A new framework of socioemotional skills built upon the traditional knowledge of First Nations cultures and aligned with the Skills for Success framework. - Adapt a tool for recognizing generic skills using the new First Nations-specific framework (Objective 1), through an action-research approach.
Expected result: A tool for recognizing socioemotional skills based on the new framework, which draws on the traditional knowledge of First Nations cultures and includes a recognition-of-prior-learning process adapted to First Nations practices. - Study how this new framework and these recognition tools can support the development of Skills for Success, in order to better assist labor market participants and the socio-economic development of First Nations communities.
A Promising First Phase
This project was launched in January 2025, driven by a team of research agents from various First Nations communities in Quebec. These individuals were hired by the First Nations Adult Education School Council (FNAESC) in the fall of 2024 and trained by ICÉA in the use of the Our Strong Skills (OSS) tool for recognizing and valuing skills.
These research agents are currently carrying out the first phase of this action-research project in the communities of Wemotaci (Atikamekw) , Gesgapegiag (Mi'gmaq), Kanehsatà:ke (Mohawk) and Pessamit (Innu), as well as at the Mamik Centre, the Indigenous Friendship Centre of Lac-Saint-Jean located in Roberval.
It is important to emphasize that these individuals come from the communities in which they are working. Within the context of this project, it was deemed essential to entrust the research activities conducted in participating First Nations communities to members of those same communities.
In this first phase, the role of the research agents is to lead Nos compétences fortes (NCF) workshops with members of their communities and to collect data following each workshop. This data collection takes the form of group interviews, in which participants are invited to share appreciative reflections on the workshop experience they just had, and on the components that make up the Our Strong Skills (OSS) tool.
The Our Strong Skills (OSS) tool thus becomes a subject of study—its structure can be broken down, and its function analyzed through a lens that combines creative thinking, reverse engineering, and various strategies drawn from appreciative inquiry approaches.
The objective is to provide a positive framework for reflection to members of the participating First Nations communities; to enable them to use the OSS workshop process as a foundation for defining the parameters of a new tool (in line with the second objective of the project stated earlier).
Throughout this data collection process, participants become co-researchers: they help us identify the aspects of the OSS approach that should inspire the creation of a new tool, and determine the adaptations needed to ensure these elements truly reflect the realities, cultures, and traditions of First Nations communities.
Collaboration and Cooperation with First Nations
From the very beginning of this project, collaboration and cooperation with First Nations have been considered essential to achieving the intended goals. The reality is that members of First Nations are the only ones who possess the knowledge required to create a new tool for recognizing skills.
Therefore, we have drawn on strategies inspired by collaborative and cooperative approaches to encourage the active participation of as many individuals as possible from the First Nations communities involved in the project. We encourage these individuals to act as co-researchers during the phases of data collection and analysis, and to share their knowledge with the research team.
Overall, this project is being carried out within a collaborative and cooperative framework—one that respects the cultures and traditions of First Nations and remains attuned to the realities of the communities engaged in the project.
The first phase of this project will continue in the spring of 2025 with the analysis of data collected from participants and the creation of a new tool, the mechanisms of which could be tested in various First Nations communities as early as fall 2025.
All decisions leading to the creation of this new tool for recognition and validation will be made by the project’s research team, which includes research officers from the Atikamekw, Innu, Mi’gmaq, and Mohawk Nations. These individuals will make every effort to ensure that their decisions best reflect the directions expressed by members of their communities during the data collection process.
Alongside the data collection following the OSS workshops, the research officers will, in the coming weeks, conduct consultations with key resource people from their communities about the types of skills (both general and socioemotional) that would be most useful in the lives of First Nations peoples.
The objective here is to identify sets of skills defined by the different participating First Nations communities that are comparable to general and socioemotional skills. Taking into account the characteristics specific to these types of skills, the desired skills are those linked to our personality, developed through action, and both useful and transferable across various life situations. These skills help us interact with others, learn, reflect, and act effectively. Ultimately, the form and importance of these skills are influenced by the world we live in.
The upcoming consultations by the research officers will involve resource people from diverse fields such as education, employability, health and social services, the economy, and politics and governance. These individuals will be invited to identify skills or reference frameworks whose wording and content align with traditional knowledge and First Nations cultures, or with the aspirations and priorities of their community (in line with the first objective of this project stated in the introduction).