TRU’s partnership with the British Columbia Wildfire Service (BCWS) is coming in hot, with six new wildfire-themed programs expected to roll out over the next year.
The university is launching a total of five certificates and one diploma within the wildfire science and communication departments.
Certificates in Wildfire Science, Wildfire Communications and Media and Sociocultural Dynamics of Wildfire are all slated for September 2025. For the Winter 2026 semester, a diploma in Wildfire Studies and certificates in Wildfire Leadership and Emergency Communications are also scheduled.
“TRU is excited to offer these programs and be part of the solution in addressing wildfire challenges,” said TRU Provost and Vice-President Academic Gillian Balfour in a media release.
This marks an early development in what is eventually expected to progress into full-fledged degrees and a potential training centre created on campus.
For BCWS, the motivation to collaborate was appealing for several reasons.
“It should assist with recruitment and retention,” said project lead Aaron Pawlick. “Students who might’ve been going down a different path, not specifically tied to wildfire or that degree, could see this as an opportunity to pivot.”
In addition to recruitment, Pawlick is excited to see what progress can be made in wildfire research and innovation. He also noted how this could make lifelong wildfire career options more attainable for young people and those already working for BCWS.
“With our employees, we go through our own training and certification channels, but we see an opportunity with TRU to assist us in further developing, delivering, and assisting with how we train and certify staff,” Pawlick said.
In their release, the university noted that this partnership was the beginning of a “distinct wildfire studies discipline, which will be a first in Canada.”
Pawlick echoed this sentiment.
“This is very much unique to TRU. We do not have any other partnerships to this scope and scale focused on training, certification, research and innovation,” Pawlick said. “It’s unique nationally and internationally. What we’re doing here is groundbreaking.”
“Providing a career pathway for our staff and students is extremely important…Having these new certificates, diplomas and ultimately degrees at some point, we hope we’ll be able to provide our staff that pathway from [an educational] standpoint.”
The university now has a freshly branded dedicated TRU Wildfire webpage where students may obtain more information.