Joe Kerr (Instructor), Min Kim (silver medalist), Heather Beckstead (gold medalist) and Rodney Braun (Lead Instructor)

A picture is worth a thousand words. The story, emotions, creativity and energy that can be captured in a photograph proves this fact, and the observer can identify, appreciate and enjoy the captivating work-of-art. This passion is what fuels photographers to bring their photos to life in creative visions.

The 21st annual Skills Manitoba Competition was held on April 12 at Red River College (RRC’s) Notre Dame and Exchange District Campuses. Over 475 students, from high school, post-secondary and apprenticeship programs, competed in 42 different skilled trades and technology challenges in six industry sectors. Achieving a medal at this level is no easy feat!

Two of RRC’s Professional Photography students participated in this competition and came out on top! Taking home the gold and silver medals in photography were Heather Beckstead and Min Kim, respectively. Congratulations on an impressive accomplishment!

Their challenge in this competition was to take three images that depicted document usage, oral communication and a mystery object. Participants were armed with a campus map of the various trades and technology events taking place, and were given the autonomy to choose an area, such as bricklaying, cabinet making or automotive, where their first two images could be captured. Read More →

Join us as our Creative Writing students share excerpts from their works. This is a wonderful opportunity to hear from emerging writers and celebrate our talented students. This reading is led by instructor and bestselling horror and suspense writer, J.H. Moncrieff.

Date: June 14, 2018
Time: 6:00pm
Location: McNally Robinson Booksellers, 1120 Grant Avenue

This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited.

Business Analysts help businesses do business better

A Business Analyst is an agent of change. Business Analysts take a disciplined approach to introducing and managing change to organizations, whether they are for-profit businesses, governments, or non-profits.

If you enjoy evaluating and analyzing data, creating solutions, communicating with a variety of people and have a good grasp of information technology, a career as a business analyst could be for you.

Are you interested in becoming a business analyst, one of the fastest growing professions?

Join us at our free information session to learn more about this career.

Date: May 28, 2018
Time: 5:00 – 6:30pm
Location: P107 – 160 Princess Street, Winnipeg MB

For more information:

204.694.1789 | cde@rrc.ca | rrc.ca/ban

Red River College, along with Peterbilt Motors Company, is opening two new sections of the successful Peterbilt Technical Institute (PTI). The first class of PTI have a 100% employment rate as certified technicians for Peterbilt Motors Company.

PTI is a manufacturer-paid training program offered to graduates from RRC’s Heavy Duty Equipment Mechanic program and Peterbilt employees who are interested in advancing their skills and training to become a certified Peterbilt technician.

This program allows the students to gain experience in all aspects of the work done at a Peterbilt dealership. Peterbilt Motors Company supplies the curriculum, laptops for the students, three trucks, two engines and specialized tools to help ensure the students’ success in becoming confident in their skills and career-ready by the end of the 12-week session. Peterbilt also trains RRC instructors to deliver the program at the College.

To be accepted, each student must have a high GPA, outstanding attendance and a clean motor vehicle record, plus pass an entrance exam and interview. Graduates may need to relocate but pay no additional tuition to gain skills that set them apart in their field.

The next intake dates are:

• June 2018
• September 2018

Watch the video to learn about the program.

For more information or to register, contact:

Randy Zyzniewski, Instructor | pti-info@rrc.ca | 204.697.5923 | rrc.ca/pti

Roger Fitch and Paul Vogt

Roger Fitch is an instructor of Red River College’s Administrative Assistant Certificate Program (AACP), and is the honoured recipient of the 2018 BRAVO award for Teaching Excellence.

As an award recipient of the highest level of recognition for RRC employees, Fitch is being recognized for his exemplary instructional qualities and for making an outstanding contribution to both the AACP and its students.

Fitch embodies a teaching style second-to-none; he thoroughly prepares prior to each term, incorporating experiences from previous course deliveries in an effort to continuously strengthen and improve future sessions. His positive attitude, upbeat disposition and clever sense of humour create a welcoming and safe environment where students enjoy the process of learning course concepts and applications.

It’s not surprising to hear that subject areas such as math and accounting may not be among students’ favourites, but if you were to ask a student in Fitch’s class, the answer may be different!  Read More →

James Ashdown, a professional engineer by trade, enrolled in Red River College’s Project Management program thinking he would enhance his skills on a professional level. What he found was an altogether new way of thinking.

“Now I see projects everywhere,” said Ashdown, when asked how best to describe what he learned through the program. “I think as professionals we tend to see ourselves as people who can get things done. But when you really break things down through a project management lens you start to see the inefficiencies that exist.”

As for what Ashdown liked most about the program, he didn’t hesitate in saying it was the knowledge of the instructors and the real-life examples they brought to the table.

“I learned so much just hearing about their experiences — their successes and their failures,” he said. “Education can so often turn into nothing but note taking and exams, but I really enjoyed coming to class and participating in discussions that challenged a lot of assumptions I never realized I even had.”

The passion and skill Ashdown has developed for the discipline of project management translated to great success in the program itself — and in Ashdown being named this year’s Project Management Institute 2018 Scholarship Winner.

As excited as Ashdown is to have achieved such a high standing in the program, he’s even more excited to be able to translate what he’s learned into greater productivity for his employer, New Flyer Industries.

Read More →

Today’s workplace is increasingly complex, interconnected and competitive, resulting in a growing demand for inventive solutions in an ever-changing world. Forward-thinking companies that strive to remain competitive — and to consistently pursue synergies and steady growth in an evolving marketplace — are embracing innovation. These companies have an increasing demand for employees with educational training and experience in agile concepts, particularly as business analysts or project managers.

Scott Hinkson, a Red River College (RRC) instructor, truly understands how industry and workplace requirements can impact customers, clients, investors, companies, and products and services. Effective business analysis and project management can “facilitate the planning, management and implementation of business and technology solutions”¹ that align with organizational strategies and are built with flexibility to withstand changes in the marketplace and achieve solutions more effectively than traditional methods.

A former student of both the Business Analyst Program and the Project Management Program, Hinkson is a Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) and the first Manitoban to have obtained PMI-ACP certification (Project Management Institute Agile Certified Practitioner). Even when these programs were in their infancy, Hinkson foresaw the opportunity of how crucial these skills are, and would continue to be, to employers in the future.

Hinkson took the initiative to approach RRC with the goal of developing two specific courses. The College shared in his desire to meet the growing needs of business analysis and project management, provide employers with a knowledgeable workforce and prepare students with the job-ready skills needed to succeed. The result: the Agile Business Analysis course and the Agile Project Management course were born!

Read More →

Please be advised that our full-time application system is scheduled for routine maintenance from Friday April 20 starting at 12:00 pm until Monday, April 30. 

During that time, we anticipate there will be an interruption in our ability to accept and process online and paper applications for full-time programs. Please check back regularly for further information and updates.

If you do require immediate assistance, or would like to discuss your upcoming application please don’t hesitate to contact a member of our customer service team at 204-632-2327 or 1-800-903-7707 or register@rrc.ca

You can still register online for your part-time courses.

We apologize for any inconveniences that this may cause you.

Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, these three tips from social-media marketing instructor Holli Moncrieff will help you improve your online marketing:

1. Have some fun.
   Like its name suggests, social media is designed to be social. The goal is to build relationships with your customers and clients, not sell them a product. Ask them to share a photo of their pets. Or their best tips for surviving Mondays. If you sell a scented product, ask them what their favourite scents are. Even though it might not feel like marketing, it is—it builds trust and people are more apt to buy from companies they like. And, the better you know your customer, the easier it will be to offer the products and services they want in the future.
2. Content is key.
   The number-one goal of any social-marketing campaign is to drive people to your website, and the best way to do that is with great content. What need do your customers have that you can fill? If you’re a museum, you can write a post of ten fun things to do on a rainy day. If you’re an auto-body shop, a list of spring maintenance must-dos would be helpful. By creating fabulous content for your website and sharing it on social media, you will attract customers to your site. Be sure to share others’ content on your social-media accounts as well.
3. Tread carefully.
   So you’ve gotten a bad review or a very public complaint from an unhappy customer. The lastthing you want to do is defend yourself, no matter how unjustified you think the complaint is. I’ve seen companies get defensive time and time again, and it always makes them look argumentative, unfriendly, and angry, no matter how carefully they word their rebuttal. If someone complains about your establishment, apologize. Offer a discounted or free service to lure them back. Your other customers will see this and appreciate how you handled a difficult situation. They might even speak up to defend you, and that’s what you want—your customers should be the ones discrediting negative reviews. Never, ever do it yourself. You can’t please everyone, and once you’ve posted a snarky rebuttal online, it’s out there forever.

Learn more about social media marketing with Holli: Beyond Hashtags

This spring, she will be teaching Beyond Hashtags, a social-media marketing course that goes far beyond the basics. Register today to make your online marketing skills sharper this summer.

About Holli:

For over two decades, Holli has been helping businesses

and non-profits navigate the choppy waters of social media. She is accredited with the Canadian Public Relations Society, and specializes in online relationship building and crisis management. Under the name J.H. Moncrieff, she’s also a bestselling horror and suspense writer.

After moving to Manitoba from China seven years ago, XiaoFei Zuo literally followed his nose to a new career he hopes will one day make him the next Ray Kroc.

In 2011, on the recommendation of a friend who’d told him of “a real nice college” in Canada, Zuo left an unsatisfying office job in Tianjin, China, to seek out new training opportunities half a world away at Red River College in Winnipeg.

Seven years later, Zuo, 32, is the owner of Dancing Noodle restaurant at 1393-A Pembina Highway. He’s also recognized as one of the only chefs in the city trained in the traditional art of noodle pulling.

But more on that later. First, what about that nose?

Back in 2011, Zuo was taking English lessons at RRC’s Language Training Centre near The Forks. He often ate lunch in the food court area, which is where he made a discovery that would change his life.

“We would go there and it just smelled so good, so I followed that smell and I found Tall Grass Prairie Bakery,” he recalls. “At that time, I made a decision to be a baker. They had an open kitchen there and I could stand and watch what they do. I like to work by hand, I don’t like just sitting and writing or something like that. I wanted to learn to bake.”

Zuo enrolled in RRC’s year-long Baking and Patisserie program, where he would arrive 90 minutes early most mornings so he could fit in extra practice.

“At Red River, I learned so many new things I never saw before,” he says. “I learned to make croissants, pies, desserts, bread. In China, most families don’t have ovens, we only have the stove, so we don’t bake at all. Here, I bake all the time and I keep learning.”

Read More →