File photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today).

By Aaron Schulze

Five certificates, one diploma

First courses in TRU’s Wildfire Studies program to begin in September

Jan 14, 2025 | 10:45 AM

KAMLOOPS — Details of a Wildfire Studies Diploma program at Thompson Rivers University have been unveiled.

Following a 30-day public feedback process, TRU says the university’s Senate and Board of Governors approved five certificates and one diploma program at the Centre for Wildfire Research, Education, Training and Innovation (TRU Wildfire).

In a news release issued Tuesday (Jan. 14), TRU says three of the certificates that are expected to start in September 2025 are each a semester in length and equal to nine credits. They include Wildfire Science (Faculty of Science), Sociocultural Dynamics of Wildfire (Faculty of Adventure, Culinary Arts and Tourism) and Wildfire Communications and Media (Faculty of Arts).

Two other approved certificates — Wildfire Leadership and Emergency Communications — are expected to start in 2026, along with the diploma in wildfire studies. TRU says the Wildfire Science and Sociocultural Dynamics of Wildfire certificates also form part of the first year of the Wildfire Studies Diploma within the Faculty of Arts.

Details of the diploma program come nearly nine months after Premier David Eby announced TRU would host the first of its kind wildfire training centre that will offer education ranging from basic training to post-doctoral work on fire behaviour and science.

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During a news conference in Kamloops in April 2024, the B.C. government expressed its desire that the Ministry of Forests’ BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) and TRU will enhance training capacity at BCWS through 1,000 workshops and 10,000 course registrations by 2028-29.

While training is expected to begin in existing facilities, a state-of-the-art training facility and building on the TRU campus is also in the works.