OCTOBER 2007 ISSUE
PD SPOTLIGHT
Getting a Return on Your People Investment
BY NANCY TOTH, MA
Manager, Professional Development,&
Manager, Human Resources
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Studies prove that dollars invested in quality training lead to multiple returns on your investment. In today’s hectic workplace — particularly in light of the resource-driven Alberta boom — companies need to get new grads in engineering and geoscience up to speed quickly.
Are you aware that APEGGA offers five days of soft-skills seminars for members-in-training, each May and October in Edmonton and Calgary?
Graduating students aren’t always well acquainted with teamwork. Students tend to be focused on their own studies.
However, that makes them bright and keen to learn — and a seminar in teamwork can make them much more valuable to your company. Communication skills, including active listening, may also be under-developed in many graduating students, and these are critical in today’s workplace.
Teamwork and communication are just two examples of soft skills that can enhance the work your M.I.T.s do for you. Imagine the multiplied value the $250 seminar fee will have for your organization in the areas of business writing, basic financial skills and more.
While the target audience is members-in-training, members at any stage of their careers are welcome to attend.
There’s more to our selection of offerings, too. Professional development opportunities provided by APEGGA are structured in progressive levels of complexity. Basic skills and introductory levels of other skills are provided at the M.I.T. seminars.
Fall PD and “stand-alone” seminars focus on intermediate-level seminars. The tradition was to provide a day of Fall PD with three or four choices of topics and presenters. Because of the boom in the economy, however, and the heightened pace in the workplace, we have cut Fall PD to two choices and increased the number of “stand-alone” seminars, such as coaching for commitment and project management, as well as our annual sessions on risk and loss management.
With general PD seminars, we aim for an intermediate level offering professional members suitable training in any given area. While a “finances for non-financial staff” M.I.T. seminar would be pitched at a basic level, a general PD seminar on this topic would be aimed at members with some basic background. Even so, our instructors customarily review basics before going into core intermediate materials.
We provide some intermediate-level but predominantly advanced-level seminars at the Executive Track and regular PD portion of the APEGGA Annual Conference and AGM. The relatively new Executive Track seminar is always advanced, featuring a prominent presenter.
The regular section is two, two-day streams of technical seminars and two to four, two-day streams of soft-skills seminars. Technical sessions are developed in conjunction with content experts.
Subject areas are selected after much research and discussion, are topical for the time, and are usually aimed at a broad audience. For example, urban sustainability a few years ago drew professionals from several specializations.
Sometimes, however, we target one group. Two years ago we brought in a high-level author and expert in software ethics. We have put on a seminar on permafrost geophysics. These facilitated sessions generally bring forth the views of several experts from academia, government and industry drawn from across North America.
On the soft-skills side, project manage-ment and aspects of leadership are perennially popular — and perennially necessary — for development of members. The conference is a perfect time to offer sessions to stretch the minds of willing members, in such areas as mind-mapping, creativity, and leading-edge approaches to the mind/body connection and work-family balance. All sessions are evaluated, which becomes part of the planning process for subsequent sessions.
I often receive suggestions for sessions on nanotechnology and climate change, both of which we have done. There are several powerful topics that will continue to remain of high interest and for this reason we will cycle through them again. But we need to maintain a broad perspective rather than simply repeating sessions.
In order to engage members and provide real learning, we try to “make it new” each time, helping members shift their view from one critical subject to another, while using the very best speakers we can attract.
While speakers for M.I.T. seminars and general PD events are usually from
Alberta (and we have a formidable array to choose from), many conference speakers
are brought in from other parts of Canada and the U.S.
Much thought also goes into the selection of the two luncheon speakers during
the two days of PD seminars at the AGM. We try to provide provocative, informative
speakers on subjects that are meaningful but different enough from the day sessions
to provide a change and a break.
Topics have been as varied as the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology, Engineers Without Borders, and connections between art and science.
The basic definition of education is an experience in learning that changes for the better the way we think and the way we do things. Providing potentially transformational learning to members is the overall goal of the professional development seminars.
Remember: staff members who experience learning in the true sense of the
word affect the bottom-line, and are more content and skilled in their jobs.
That’s
something all companies should buy into.
I encourage you to regularly check this section of The PEGG and our
website to keep informed of APEGGA’s professional development offerings.