The 2010 year was a great success! 235 students registered for 15 courses at Confederation College's Shuniah building.
Thank you so much to our partners: Confederation College, YES Employment Services, Lakehead Public Schools, Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board, Conseil Scolaire de district Catholique des Auroes Boreales, and Superior-Greenstone District School Board.
As part of the follow-up we had conducted a survey of our participants, instructors and teachers; here is the results of that survey.
We had coverage from the Lakehead Public Schools e-Newsletter, CBC Radio recorded some interviews and the Chronicle Journal came in and took some photos and held interviews. Here's from the C-J:
Questions like what skills are needed to repair a trombone or deal with an unhappy customer were being explored at Confederation College on Wednesday.
More than 250 students attended Passport to Prosperity workshops on Wednesday. Areas of study ranged from first aid and conflict resolution to skill development in specific areas to understand what employers expect.
“Students by now are looking for summer employment and are thinking about future careers, so we decided to have a big, one-day workshop with courses in high-demand areas,” said Ryan Moore, program and special event co-ordinator for Passport to Prosperity.
“We approached local businesses and employment service groups to ask if they wanted to run a course through this and tailored the day according to who agreed to attend.”
The courses covered specific skills and professional conduct employers expect from potential candidates. Dressing appropriately, assisting customers and body language were discussed in many of the courses.
Proper dress and attitude are crucial to landing a job and representing a company, said Brenda Richtig, a certified trainer who works with YESS Employment. She trains students to prepare them for the service industry, because many of them will have their first job in retail or entry-level service positions.
“At this point in their lives some students only care about getting a job to get a paycheck,” she said. “I‘m teaching these students they are a representative of their company, their behaviour and looks are a reflection of the company they work for and will determine the public‘s perception of them as a whole.”
Richtig touched on areas like teamwork, customer loyalty and dealing with complaints.
She asked participants to think about their own experiences as customers and how their concerns were dealt with. She said it‘s not the aggressive complainer who is most harmful to a company, but the silent, unhappy person who tells others about their bad experiences.
“Those are the worst because you, the employee, never hear directly from them, so you never get a chance to defend or correct the situation,” Richtig said. “That‘s why you have to always be a positive representative and do everything to see to customers‘ needs.”
Some courses covered specific industries, like musical instrument repair. Jeff Gibson, owner of Coran‘s Music, was running a course on how to perform basic maintenance and repairs on flutes, saxophones and trombones.
“All of the students I have in this course are already musically inclined as band members. I‘m just expanding on their knowledge base,” Gibson said. “This is only a glimpse into the technical aspect. A real musical technician needs to have years of training and experience to work on instruments because they are precision instruments.‘‘
While there are some repairs musicians can make to their instruments, Grade 11 Westgate high school student Jared Wallace said he knows they can‘t fix most of the problems that might arise.
“I‘m in the band and I know we cannot do major repairs because everything on these instruments has to line up perfectly,” Wallace said. “This is a career option for me. I‘m curious to see how these instruments are put together.”
See the photo slide-shows in the navigation bar to the right.