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October 2004
Page 2 of 7
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The main event, which commenced on Friday evening, featured
numerous keynote speakers such as Allison Rougeau from the
Canadian Apprenticeship Forum who discussed "Barriers to Success
in Apprenticeship"; Conrad Murphy, Business Leader from Bow
Valley College who explained the pre-apprentice "Test of
Essential Skills (TOWES); John Hogan, Manager of E-Learning and
Joshua Rose, Project Officer-Pipeline Construction Safety
Training of the Construction Sector Council who identified the
benefits associated with the program "Harnessing the Power of
E-Learning"; Michael Callahan and Rick Hecklinger, Directors of
the National Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee (NJATC),
who explained some of the procedures of the NJATC in regards to
apprentice intake, as well as extending an offer of assistance
and cooperation in the development of our programs; and G.W.
Gedies from The GSI Group who challenged the participants in his
discussion “Exploring a Workplace Mentor/Coach Program”.
Carol MacLeod did an excellent exercise on tips to help pass
multiple-choice Inter-provincial exams. Symposium participants
also had the option of participating in two of the three
workshops which were offered:
- Clear Language Guidelines for Developing Training
Materials with Rose Grotsky, Learning Communications Inc., a
workshop which provided participants with practical tools
for improving the quality of training materials, along with
examples which highlight their application. The delegates
learned how to keep the message simple, concise, easy to
read and it was helpful to anyone who is writing, as well as
developing training material.
- Best Practices for JAC Apprentice Screening Protocols: a
workshop which encouraged networking on best practices for
screening protocols when weighting information such as
education, interviews, aptitude tests, etc., for selection
of the most qualified candidates for apprenticeship while
exploring the merits of a harmonized approach. This workshop
proved to be very informative.
- Interview Techniques for Selecting Apprentices: A
workshop which explained to participants proper procedures
for developing and conducting legally defensible interviews
of apprenticeship candidates. Almost all the delegates
attending this workshop realized they were asking questions
that are no longer allowed. Too often, the interviewers make
up their mind in the first 15 seconds or the first minute on
whether the applicant would be accepted or not, and this
workshop taught the interviewers how to get beyond the first
impression.
Although the majority of the information provided by the
Symposium participants is still being analyzed, it was
successful in identifying those things which are both common and
unique in respect to training and apprentice intake in various
areas around the country. Now comes the time to roll up our
sleeves and make use of the information provided to formulate a
plan which will move forward training and apprenticeship in the
IBEW.
Many thanks to Carol MacLeod for facilitating this great
conference, and as well as the sponsors mentioned earlier, we
are grateful for the support from the National Literacy
Secretariat of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada.
Online and CD Based Training for Members
There has been a lot of response to the CD Based Online
Training that was introduced in the recent Canadian Comment.
Coming soon will be a library of over 500 courses. Look for more
information in the next edition of Coast to Coast.
Don’t forget that “Everything Desktop” is available to the
members at a special introductory price of $12.00 for online
training for a one year licence. This special offer has been
extended until December 31, 2004.
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