News

This is a joint news release between the Government of Yukon and Yukon University.

Over the 2025–26 academic year, Yukon University, in partnership with the Government of Yukon, is offering tailored professional training for educational assistants employed with Yukon schools. The new four-part “micro-credential” started with an orientation and engagement session on August 20, 2025, at the Ayamdigut campus, with participation from 218 educational assistants from schools around the territory.

Yukon University’s Associate Professor of Anthropology in the School of Liberal Arts, Victoria Castillo, recently published an article in the peer reviewed journal Ethnohistory shedding new light on mid-19th century First Nations hunting practices in subarctic Canada.

Fort Selkirk, Yukon, served as a significant site of interaction between the Northern Tutchone people and Hudson’s Bay Company fur traders during the mid-nineteenth century. In 2006, archaeological excavations at the site led to the recovery of a distinctive moose (Alces alces) scapula. This artifact offers material evidence of early contact period Northern Tutchone hunting techniques and scapulimancy. Etched into the surface of the bone is a detailed zoomorphic image of a large male ungulate, likely a moose, accompanied by an arrow in flight near its head.

A powerful First Nation-led initiative is taking shape across the Yukon to help communities improve safety, healing, and wellness. House of Wolf & Associates, in partnership with Yukon University, is proud to announce the launch of the Community Safety Guardian (CSG) Training Program, beginning September 22, 2025.

This program supports First Nations-led safety programs that are already making a difference in communities across the North. Community Safety Guardians are trusted community members trained to provide culturally safe support, de-escalate conflict, and assist people in crisis. Unlike conventional enforcement approaches, Guardians focus on healing, wellness, and connection, rather than enforcement or punishment.

$52.2M Polaris Project will provide updated learning spaces and laboratory facilities to the Ayamdigut Campus

After many years of planning and design, construction of the $52.2 million Polaris Project is getting underway. The 2,567m2 state-of-the art building will include modern indoor and outdoor learning spaces, laboratories and will be built to meet net zero carbon and accessibility standards.

On April 16, 2025, the ground was blessed in a ceremony led by the chiefs of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and the Ta’an Kwatch’an Council, Sean Smith and Ruth Massie, along with University Chancellor Carol Geddes, Education Minister Jeanie McLean, and YukonU faculty and staff. Project partners and funders gathered on June 13 to celebrate the start of construction. The building is expected to be completed in Fall 2027.

Three Yukon University students are in Regina this week to compete in the 2025 Skills Canada National Competition.

Kenneth Latham (known on campus as Marshall) is competing for Welding, Christopher Phillips for Carpentry, and Joshua Willoughby for Heavy Vehicle Technology. All three are showing off the skilled trades they study at YukonU.

The competitors earned their National Competitor designation at the Yukon Territorial Skills Competition held on April 27 at YukonU.

Yukon University has updated and relaunched its Office Administration Program now featuring three streamlined certification paths, including a brand new Medical Office Assistant option beginning Fall 2025.

All three certificate programs offer extensive flexibility for students looking for a career as a skilled administrative professional:

• Administrative Assistant
• Financial Assistant
• Medical Office Assistant (new 2025)

MAYO – Yukon University will receive more than $1 million from Employment and Social Development Canada to support community training needs.

The Community Retraining of Workers Project (CROW) will address the challenges from the mass layoffs at Victoria Gold’s Eagle Gold Mine. This program will build a collaborative workforce through community engagement by bridging the gap between impacted workers and community employers. It will facilitate work experience opportunities, skill development and career pathway guidance.

CROW will be funded under the Canada Retraining and Opportunities Initiative. Announced earlier this week, the project is part of a $50 million Government of Canada initiative to expand the social safety net to support more workers and communities.