U of C Seeks Feedback On Continuing Education Plans

By Domenic Mancuso, P.Eng.

Domenic Mancuso is Program Director - Engineering, Faculty of Continuing Education - at The University of Calgary.

It was Robert Louis Stevenson who said "To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life". With the increasing competitive nature of the job market, "becoming what we are capable of becoming" involves the development of a particular set of skills which will contribute to our success. As individuals, we can grow in three areas Ñ knowledge (information), skill (how to apply the information to our jobs and lives), and attitude (how we handle ourselves, people, and situations). All three areas are important to our development. The University of Calgary's Faculty of Continuing Education (Engineering Area) is committed to providing relevant and practical professional development based on the needs of practicing engineers, taking into account busy work and family commitments. The most productive method of assessing needs has always been to provide an opportunity for those who are interested in pursuing their professional development to offer comments and suggestions regarding their individual needs.

Additional sources, such as newspaper and magazine articles, indicate that gas processing, compression, heavy oil, oil sands, pipeline, or SCADA may be examples of areas where further training may be required.

In addition to the need to enhance technical skills, we are currently developing a number of one-day seminars (leadership development, determination of priorities, purpose, etc.) which will be offered at the university (or in-house) as required, commencing on Jan. 30, 1998. The first of this series is called "Developing the Leader Within You".

Based on our recent discussions with numerous engineers, the U of C will focus on developing short (one-two-day) practical and relevant seminars which will focus on very specific topics (for example-flare system sizing). We have found that busy schedules do not allow engineers to be away from the office for extended periods of time. This will undoubtedly result in the development of a number of such seminars.

Your suggestions and comments are important and your feedback would be appreciated either by contacting me by phone at 220-6069, via E-mail at mancuso@acs.ucalgary.ca or via fax at 289-7287.