When it comes to rural revitalization, education and economic development, Saskatchewan and much of the modern world still has a lot to learn.

Research intern Ian Burgess, who's working out of an office at Southeast Regional College, is hoping the government and some local rural communities use the research materials he's currently working on for the college and the Southeast Education Foundation (SEF).
The project investigates the relationship between education, training, and community economic development in rural areas; in short, it's a case study for rural revitalization from an educational standpoint.

"There's not a lot of work being done on this," said Burgess. "We want to find out what's worked the best throughout the world, what's failed and why it happened."

Burgess, who came from Saskatoon for this opportunity, is part of a sponsorship program managed the Max Bell Foundation from Calgary, which provided the university graduate with an eight-month internship here in Weyburn.

The project should provide some insight and a better understanding about current attitudes towards rural revitalization, education and economic development.

The question is, how do we revitalize rural Saskatchewan?" noted Southeast Regional College president Art Whetstone, talking about the project. "If we're going to revise and develop rural Saskatchewan, we need to know what approach to take. This project should give us an increased understanding about what other communities are doing in the areas of economic development, education and revitalization."

The endeavour is broken down into two parts. The first part is a literature review, looking at a given area's education and training. This phase of the project is expected to be completed by February.

In the second phase, Burgess, the college and SEF will take the research and try to localize it with rural Saskatchewan by creating some action policies.

This will take the form of a pilot project, which will utilize the findings of the research. Government agencies will be approached to see what type of funding is available.

Burgess said he's compiling information from the United Kingdom, Western Europe, Scandinavia, the United States and Canada.

The idea is to find out what's happening within some rural areas around the world and try to apply some of those success stories here in Saskatchewan. The end result may be a policy that could be put to use.

"There are some places out there that don't go out and build a dam as their way of revitalization and economic development," Whetstone added. "There are some progressive ideas out there that we need to look at. We have to make it work for Saskatchewan. It has to be local and it has to fit the community."

Whetstone noted that the project has a heavy learning curve involved with it. Every step of the way, those involved will analyze and re-evaluate the steps taken to get there. He said it's a good way to focus on the values and practicalities of education.

"Things have gone really well," said Burgess. "When the finding are released, it will be an up-to-date report on what's going on around the world. People can say the grass is always greener on the other side, but when this report is complete we'll find out where Saskatchewan sits with the rest of the world.