Blog

Family is important at Sprott Shaw, as a college we take pride in our relationships with our students and our local communities. One example of this connection is the Navarro family. Jan Navarro is the eldest son and graduated from the New Westminster Practical Nursing program back in 2009. He has been employed full time as a Nurse in a local Hospital. After his success his mother Arlene followed in her son’s footsteps and enrolled. Arlene graduated at our most recent ceremony on October 7th, 2011. Arlene and her husband have promised that all 4 younger children will be coming to Sprott-Shaw once they graduate from High School.

We look forward to welcoming their children to our family, and helping them succeed like Jan and Arlene have.

Congratulations to our Nanaimo campus Practical Nursing program students who all passed the National Exam this year. This is the 5th year in a row of the PN program in Nanaimo having a perfect 100% pass record – great job!

If you haven’t enrolled in our PN Program yet, don’t miss out! January is your last chance to take our 12 month program before all PN programs in all post-secondary institutions transition to a 24 month program. Our Nanaimo campus still has a few spots left, but they will fill up fast. Start the new year off right with this fantastic program and contact us today for more information.

Many of our current and former students have not yet taken advantage of our Global Career Center (GCC) in their job search. The GCC contacts human resources departments of multinational companies to ascertain their hiring needs and follows up with job candidate applications professionally prepared by the GCC. This is a cost effective way to provide additional value to students and graduates by bridging the gap between the learning and working sectors and making it easier for employers to fulfill their recruitment needs. This service is exclusive to Sprott-Shaw and our sister companies of the CIBT Group.

The Career Center has a database of more then 3000 jobs and is adding more jobs to its database everyday. Even in this tough economy its placement performance has increased more then 400%!

What do I need to do?

To use GCC services, contact the Graduate Services Representitive (GSR) from your campus or call our Head Office at 604-552-9711. They will ask you to send them your resume so it can be submitted to the Global Career Center.

Early Childhood Educators of British Columbia (ECEBC) has announced a province-wide photo contest in preparation for ECEBC’s 41st annual conference. They are inviting Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) to submit photos of children and educators engaged in authentic play to ECEBC. The winning photo will be produced as a poster for their 2012 Conference.

Please use the following criteria to guide you in your photo selection:

• Photos must include children and educators together.
• Consider the conference theme (Playing it Forward: Discovering the Wonder and Value of Authentic Play) when selecting photo submissions.
• Entries must be submitted as a jpeg file with photo release forms for every individual in the photo (parents/guardians must sign for children) to membership@ecebc.ca. Photo release forms can be downloaded at www.ecebc.ca.
• All photos become the property of ECEBC once submitted.

The winning photo will be chosen by the 2012 Conference Committee. The winner will be announced on the ECEBC website and at conference, and will receive a free one-year ECEBC membership and a framed copy of the poster. Other photos may be displayed at conference.

Contest opens: November 1, 2011
Contest closes: January 15, 2012

Please email photo submissions and completed photo release forms to membership@ecebc.ca.

For more information, please contact Director of Conference, Charlene Gray, at cggray@shaw.ca.

Almost 150 Degree and Diploma graduates and approximately 700 friends and family from all across the Lower Mainland came together in celebration last night. The beautiful Red Robinson Show Theater in Coquitlam played host to this fantastic event. Graduates from our Vancouver, East Vancouver, Surrey, New Westminster, Maple Ridge and Degree College campuses all participated. Virgin Radio and “Jack The Giant” from the Vancouver Giants were on hand, Virgin interviewed attendees and “Jack” posed for pictures. Prizes were awarded after the ceremony and everyone in attendance enjoyed cake.

Thank you to all who attended and we wish all the best to our graduates, don’t forget to drop by your campus and let us know how you are doing!

Click here to see pictures from the event. Tag yourself in photos on our Facebook page and you could win a Sprott-Shaw prize pack!

Today, October 18, is Health Care Assistant (HCA) Day in British Columbia. Back in July, B.C.’s Lieutenant Governor Steven L. Point proclaimed October 18, 2011 as Health Care Assistant Day. The name Health Care Assistant is used to describe several different positions including residential care aides, community health workers, long term care aides, home health aides, home support workers, personal care aides and continuing care assistants.

Health Care Assistants are an important and increasingly vital part of the our health care system, working in healthcare facilities and community agencies. If you have seen a Health Care Assistant at work, you know how important it is to dedicate this day to HCA’s to show that we all appreciate the hard work they do, and we understand the compassion and care they give every day.

As our “baby boomers” continue to grow older, HCA’s will become even more critical. You too can be a part of this growing and fulfilling field. Learn more about Health Care Assistants by contacting one of our experienced career advisors online or by phone at 310-HIRE (4473). By this time next year, you could be celebrating this day with your Health Care colleagues.

The Province newspaper has started a fantastic 14-part series on the aging Lower Mainland population. One of the articles included in the weekend edition of this series was titled “Demographic shift could challenge B.C. more than any other province” and included this quote from NDP MLA Mike Farnworth:

“Over the next 10 years the population of seniors will increase significantly, depending on the age cohort,” Farnworth said. “From 60 to 64, the population will increase by 29 per cent. From 65 to 69, the population will have grown by 52 per cent. The age group of 70 to 74 will have grown by 65 per cent. The age group of 75 to 79 will have grown by 79 per cent, and the increase of people over 90 will have grown by 63 per cent.” (Source)

These eldery British Columbians will require a significant increase of health care resources. Sprott-Shaw has college programs starting monthly for Health Care Assistant (formaly known as Residential Care Aide), Practical Nursing and more. The article concludes:

“…[A] person in the 65-to-69-year-old age group uses more than twice the health care services of someone in the 45-to-49-year-old age group. A person who is 75 uses twice the health care of someone who is 65, and an 85-year-old uses twice the health-care services, on average, of someone who is 75 years old. That tells you that we have some significant challenges.” (Source)

If your looking for a rewarding career in health care with significant opportunities for employment and advancement, contact us today, or call us at 310-HIRE (4473) and speak with one of our friendly career advisors.

By Joe Girard

Are you worried about your performance? Do you really know what you contribute? Are you unsure of the direction you are going? The steps below will help guide you through a self-assessment and move you towards better performance.

Most times we leave the performance review up to someone else – supervisor, boss. We wait with anticipation to see if we are doing a good job. Wouldn’t it be nice to be totally aware of what you do and how well you do it?

Remember that you are the one who understands what you do every day better than anyone else. Who better to assess and develop your talent than the person in the mirror?

The five stages are:

1. Awareness
2. Planning
3. Action
4. Evaluation
5. Decision

1. AWARENESS: Understand the goals of your boss and other stakeholders

This will be the most important step of the process and will help you gain the focus you need. In any situation, before change can take place, awareness is the key. Complete awareness of the whole picture. Keep in mind that this stage is not where you share your ideas of how things can change, improve or be more efficient. Request a meeting or share a coffee. You should feverishly take notes. Ask questions, and paraphrase that you understand the information correctly. Ask about what makes them excited about their job and the company. Find out what direction they see it going. Question about what they think the company does great and some wish lists they might have on how the company can improve. You might think that these types of questions could be considered as intrusive; however most people will be happy to talk about their own goals and passions for their jobs.

2. PLANNING: Make a list of everything you do – clean house, start fresh

From watering plants to washing your hands before brain surgery, leave no task off the list. This will allow you to see exactly what you do. Then do the following:

• Analyze the importance of each task. Rate them ABC.
• Analyze the percentage of time spent on each task.
• Compare time spent and importance.
• Find a way to remove unimportant activities.

By freeing up your time and removing unimportant activities, you will unlock the freedom to add new, more productive tasks to your day.

3. ACTION: Set goals for the month and the year – then work to achieve them!
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Our Victoria Campus is hiring Business Instructor(s). This is a part-time position. The successful candidate must have two years job-related experience, a professional designation, or a degree. Areas of instruction may include:

Computerized Accounting Systems; Communications, Bookkeeping; Marketing; Computer Applications and Systems.

We offer a competitive package, excellent team oriented work environment and future opportunities. Please forward your resume and cover letter to annew@sprott-shaw.com or fax to 250-384 8121.

By Joe Girard

I often have conversations regarding the value of an education. As an industry expert, it is easy for me to explicitly know when it is a good idea to further ones education, but for others sometimes it is not quite clear. Over the years, I have developed a pretty simple formula for those who need some logic to accompany the emotion behind the decision.

It costs money to go to school. Take some time and explore your options with the skills you have right now. I recently wrote about how to conduct a personal performance review, so if you decide that change is required, this should help frame your decision. Do your research. Ask for help.

Look at school as an investment and keep in mind that with any investment, you should consider the ROI (return on investment). You don’t want to lose money of course. Don’t just look at the cost of the program alone because that is only part of the equation, and means debt regardless. Consider the employment opportunities and how long it would take to make that money back. I use this as some basic math:

Cost (Canadian dollars and resources):

• For every $10,000 of money borrowed for school,
• Approximately $109/month repayment over ten years on a student loan
• See chart below – shows 10, 5, 3 years repayment ( www.canlearn.ca )

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