Gold Award for the Education Outreach Program

by Pascale Therriault, editor-reviser
Source: @StatCan - Statistics Canada's Electronic Employee Magazine, September 2003.

On Wednesday, August 27, during its annual conference, the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC)—a bilingual national organization concerned with the theory and practice of public management—awarded its first prize for innovative management to Ray Ryan, who heads the Education Outreach Program.

A prestigious award

	From left to right: Bob Morine from IBM Canada, Arthur Kroeger, Chair of the Jury and Chancellor of Carleton University, Mary Townsend and Ray Ryan. Photo: IPAC

The main purposes of the IPAC Award for Innovative Management are:

• to identify and publicize success stories in the public sector that are worthy of emulation;
• to enhance the image of the public sector; and
• to foster innovation in the public sector by encouraging and recognizing organizations and people for creative and effective ways of doing things.

This major award has grown considerably in importance since its creation. "What impressed the jury," says Mary Townsend, (Coordinator of the Education Outreach Program) "is that the Education Outreach Program was launched with a very small budget and we have succeeded in reaching our potential market of 300,000 Canadian teachers and 6 million students."

An obstacle course

The suggestion that Statistics Canada should enter the competition came from the members of the IPAC Awards Program. This year, the theme of the IPAC competition was "In the Know: Managing Knowledge," and the Education Outreach Program met the selection criteria.

A proposal was therefore submitted to the Institute of Public Administration of Canada. At the end of May, IPAC contacted the eight groups selected to go before the selection jury, and Statistics Canada was one of these finalists. IPAC had received 90 nominations. And so in June, Ray Ryan, Mary Townsend and Sunita Kossta (Education Liaison Officer in the Central Region) went before the prestigious IPAC selection jury, consisting of the following members:

• Arthur Kroeger, Chair of the Jury and Chancellor of Carleton University;
• Maurice Boisvert, President of Quebec's Office de la protection du consommateur;
• Mary Gusella, Chief Commissioner, Canadian Human Rights Commission;
• H. Ian Macdonald, President Emeritus, York University;
• Gail Stephens, CEO, British Columbia Pension Corp. and former City Manager of Winnipeg.

Presentations were to last 15 minutes, followed by a 45-minute question period. The STC representatives knew that the jury would assign special importance to the following criteria:

• innovation;
• relevance;
• significance;
• effectiveness.

	The Award. Photo: Pascale Therriault

Three weeks later, Mr. Ryan and his team learned that they were in the top three. There were actually four finalists, since two groups were tied. In consequence, there were four groups making presentations before the 600 delegates who gathered in Toronto on August 26 for the Institute's annual conference. IPAC allotted 12 minutes to each group. Of the four presenters, only Mr. Ryan managed to stay within the time limit. "After the presentation, I was sure we were second," says Mr. Ryan. "So imagine my delight the next day when, after awarding third prize (the tie), they named the team that won the Silver Award; it was then that I realized that we had won the gold!"

Education Outreach Program

The Education Outreach Program is designed to assist students and teachers in all regions of Canada. Statistics Canada supplies up-to-date information and curriculum-based learning resources and provides teachers with training and support in statistics and data management. This includes:

• the Learning resources Website;
• E-STAT;
• an electronic notice board featuring education resources;
• a network of regional education representatives;
• the University Liaison Program;
• the Classroom Outreach Program;
• the Classroom Experts Program.

	The Education Outreach Program team with Mr. Ryan. Photo: Pascale Therriault

The Program has succeeded beyond all expectations. Teachers and students access the Learning Resources page of Statistics Canada's website at the rate of more than 4,000 visitors per day. More than 10,000 teachers have familiarized themselves with hundreds of lesson plans and other practical products that promote the use of data in learning. More than 9,000 schools subscribe to E-STAT—a dynamic learning tool.

"Being part of this program has been one of the most gratifying activities of my career as a civil servant," Mr. Ryan told the jury in his first presentation. "To work with this passionate and dedicated education outreach team—all special individuals; to see the support for education grow internally at all levels of our agency and externally with users; to hear the positive and remarkable feedback and results from teachers, students and parents—this is truly what public service is about."

To everyone involved in the Education Outreach Program either directly or indirectly, congratulations!