Learning to Learn – Again

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. ~Alvin Toffler

As summer 2012 comes to an end, we are bombarded with back to school messages. This year, Canadian shoppers are expected to spend 13%more than they did last year on everything from pencils and erasers to laptop computers and sneakers. It isn’t just our youth, however, that are returning to school. Adults are also headed back to the classroom; an upward trend expected to continue over the next several years.

For some adults, a return to school – whether to earn a certificate, diploma, or degree – can be as stressful as that first day of Kindergarten. A lot may have changed since the last time they were in a classroom and learning while juggling work and family responsibilities can add to already busy and stress-filled lives. 10Tips to Fit Professional Development Into a Busy Life offers some easy-to-implement solutions when adding the role of student.

As you think about your learning goals for this fall, an important first step may be learning about how you learn. Your learning style may impact the type of educational choices you make (e.g., as a solitary learner a busy classroom may not be the best choice). Uncertain of your learning style? Learning Styles Online offers a great, and brief, summary of the 7 learning styles and a learning styles questionnaire.

Keep in mind that learning doesn’t have to involve a return to formal education or the completion of a degree program. Reading a book, listening to a recorded lecture, or attending a webinar are great ways to start, or re-start, your professional development journey.

Step Beyond Your Comfort Zone

In recent research for our Look Before You Leap suite of resources, we discovered something simple but surprising nonetheless. We were trying to identify factors contributing to self-employment conversations (i.e., why do some career counsellors/coaches put self-employment on the table as a possibility for all clients to consider while others never bring the topic up at all?) We discovered that the single best predictor of a self-employment conversation between a counsellor/coach and a client was something we’re calling “self-employment coaching self-efficacy” (i.e., the counsellor/coach’s confidence that s/he had the knowledge and skills to discuss self-employment intelligently).

This made me wonder – what else are we reluctant to discuss because we don’t know enough about it? What resources are being withheld from our clients, employees, or students because we don’t know what we don’t know? According to the 4 stages of learning model, we all begin in “unconscious incompetence” – it takes feedback and exposure to new ways of thinking to move us through conscious incompetence (i.e., we recognize a gap), to conscious competence (i.e., we’re practicing something new, but it’s still a bit awkward), to unconscious competence, where we’ve seamlessly integrated the new knowledge, skills, or attitudes into our day-to-day way of being.

As career counsellors, coaches, managers, and other leaders working with diverse people and problems today, what other specific kinds of self-efficacy do you need to encourage you to branch out a bit in the types of support you can and do offer? Within our Career Management Professional (CMP) program, it sometimes feels like we’re “preaching to the choir” in our
specialized courses. We have courses on International and Global Careers – and students have typically had some international experience themselves. Similarly, our course on the Immigrant Experience tends to draw people who, themselves, have immigrated. Women in the Workplace would rarely attract a male student. Outside of CMP, Look Before You Leap (our self-employment course) typically attracts people who have already been self-employed.

I’m definitely a fan of building on strengths. However, our research results highlighted the danger of not stretching our boundaries – we’re unlikely to even explore possibilities with others if we don’t feel knowledgeable enough to have a conversation.

What do you need to learn more about? Where can you start? Of course, we welcome you in our e-courses and workshops but also encourage you to set some personal learning goals and begin talking with others about how to fill them. To learn more about diverse cultures, consider attending special community events. To learn more about self-employment, check out the free resources on our Look Before You Leap site. To learn more about how to champion diversity in your workplace, explore the free resources through our Diversity at Work site. The only way to build specialized self-efficacy is to step out of your comfort zone . . . I encourage you to take the first step today.

Back to School: Accelerate Your Learning Success

I’m definitely a lifelong learner. I recall, as a preschooler, setting up my friends on apple crates, around a shiny blackboard that my Dad had painted for me to write on with chalk. I joined the future-teachers’ club in high school, then got a teaching degree in university. Now I teach university myself – and continue to learn from my students, colleagues, clients, and research projects (and, of course, from my kids and grand-kids!).

My third degree was in Educational Psychology, so I also know a bit about how people learn. It may surprise you to learn that not all “smart” people do well in school – nor are many of those who do excel measurably “smarter” than their peers.

So – why are some people so much more successful at learning than others?

Successful learners work to their strengths. They understand their own learning styles and, where possible, find learning opportunities that fit. For example, “morning people” may struggle at night school; on the other hand, “night people” may find it impossible to absorb anything from an 8AM lecture. Extraverts prefer learning with others, in an interactive community; introverts, however, typically prefer quiet environments with time to reflect before responding to questions. Auditory learners do well when they can listen (podcasts, and recording lectures instead of taking notes, can reap huge rewards). Visual learners, on the other hand, may benefit from charts, graphs, photos, illustrations, and mind-maps. Kinaesthetic learners learn as they “do”; practical workplace-based training, hands-on demonstrations, and making physical models facilitate learning success for these folks.

Successful learners also set goals. In formal education, most courses have learning objectives posted as part of the course outline. Strong students, however, also set specific learning goals of their own. These goals help them focus their energy and spend their time wisely. If marks are important, they pay attention to the specific grading criteria of the course and ensure that they follow assignment guidelines closely. They make use of the instructor’s office hours and check in early to ensure that their assignments are on track.

Finally, successful learners take care of themselves. They integrate lifelong learning (whether formal or informal) into their other life roles. They realize that they won’t achieve their learning goals if they burn out; nor will they achieve their other life goals if they focus exclusively on learning. They strategically give learning activities exactly the amount of time they are worth – no more, no less.

If you’re heading back-to-school soon, take time to learn how you learn – identify your learning style and strengths. Set specific measureable goals – and track your own progress. Build in rewards for achieving milestones and small successes – and structure your life such that lifelong learning is sustainable in the midst of your other important life roles.

Click here for a special Back to School offer for Life Strategies’ LearnOnline courses and in-house customized training.

Fitting Professional Development Into Your Crazy Busy Life

Was one of your New Year’s resolutions to engage in some professional development? Wondering how to make room for it? Have you considered learning online?

Deirdre’s working on a PhD from Fielding University in the US, offered in a blended model. I teach for both Yorkville and Athabasca University, in both cases in courses that are fully online. Life Strategies offers scheduled and customized courses – online, blended, or at your own workplace for groups of 10 or more.

Worried about how to pay for your professional development? Click here for 10 Tips to Stretch Your Professional Development Dollars

If you’re a career practitioner, there are more professional development options than ever before – within Life Strategies, we’ve added several new certificate programs this year and it may be challenging to sort through which one is the best fit for you. It’s not too late to register for our new Foundations in Educational and Vocational Guidance program, starting on January 19th. This is our shortest comprehensive coverage of core competencies for career development practitioners.

To help you decide between certificate options, here’s a quick comparison of features (all are facilitated e-learning, equivalent to 10 hours of learning each week).

Career Management Professional (CMP)

• 6 specialty certificates, aligned to Canadian Standards and Guidelines


• 20+ courses to choose from; each certificate requires 10 two-week courses (20 weeks)


• Modularized approach, so 2nd specialty certificate may only require a few additional courses


• Theories (20 hours) and Ethics Essentials (10 hours) aligned to BCCDP certification


• Preapproved CEUs from CCPA, VRA, GCDF


• Next start: See schedule for specific courses; courses can be taken in any order

Global Career Development Facilitator (within CMP)

• 11 two-week courses


• Preapproved for GCDF Canada through CCE


• Aligned to Canadian Standards and Guidelines and GCDF Competencies


• Theories (20 hours) and Ethics Essentials (10 hours) aligned to BCCDP certification


• Next start: See schedule for specific courses; program is modularized so courses can be taken in any order

Foundations for Practice in Educational and Vocational Guidance Practitioner

• 1 six-week course


• Preapproved for Educational and Vocational Guidance Practitioner credential through IAEVG


• Aligned to EVGP Competencies


• Great overview of career development basics for all career practitioners, teachers, and HR professionals providing career support


• Next start: January 19, 2011

Case Manager

• 1 four-week course


• Develops skills for needs assessment, goal-setting, action-planning, follow-up, evaluation, and documentation


• Next start: February 2, 2011

Global Career Development Facilitator (through NECA)

• 1 twelve-week course


• Preapproved for GCDF US through CCE


• Offered in partnership with NECA


• Next start: February 15, 2011

Job Developer

• 1 four-week course


• Preapproved by Job Developer’s Institute


• Next start: February 23, 2011

B Level Psychometric Assessments

• 2 three-week courses


• In partnership with Yorkville University


• CPE 510 and CPE 521, together, are equivalent to a graduate level course in tests and measurements


• Meets B Level qualification requirements


• Next start: CPE 510 – March 2, 2011 / CPE 521 – April 13, 2011

Personality Dimensions

• Level 1 – 1 three-week course; Bridging – 1 one-week course


• Meets qualifications for Personality Dimensions Facilitator (Level 1) Certification


• Instructed by Master Trainers and authors of the Toolkits for Trainers series


• Next start: March 30, 2011

Job Club Coach

• 1 four-week course


• Preapproved by Career Professionals of Canada


• Meets requirements for application at reduced fee for


• Certified Resume Strategist


• Certified Interview Strategist


• Next start: April 27, 2011
  
  

Building Cultural Competency...Right in Your Own Neighbourhood

Managing diverse workplaces is a hot topic these days. To address skill shortages, we’re increasingly dependent on immigrant workers – and, for the first time ever, we have four distinct generations working within many organizations. Much money and time has been invested in helping organizations to recruit and retain diverse workers – the SEED toolkit that we developed last year is one example of a comprehensive project with that focus. The toolkit is freely available at: www.embracingdiversity.ca.
However, a big challenge with embracing diversity is simply that we don’t know what we don’t know. In the Cultural Diversity Yearbook, part of the SEED toolkit, is full of ideas for embracing diversity at work.
The picture I’ve inserted here looks like it might be from one of our trips to Asia, doesn’t it? A beautiful Jade Buddha is being admired by visitors, some of whom have travelled quite a distance to see it. If you could hear the sounds, the major languages are Chinese and Vietnamese – no English. You’d smell incense mingled with Pho, a Vietnamese soup. Many visitors are drinking bubble tea. There are only 4 Caucasian visitors out of several hundred in the plaza – Gerry and I, and two men with their Asian wives and families.

What may surprise you is that this photo is from the corner of our quiet street in the village of Aldergrove, in the middle of farm country just an hour outside of Vancouver. A Buddhist monastery purchased the United Church building and property and, within just one month, converted it to a temple. The Jade Buddha for Universal Peace is only temporarily on display – if you can get to Aldergrove before Sunday, August 15th, it’s well worth a look!

As I sat at my desk earlier today and looked out my office window, a South Asian woman was standing on her front lawn bowing to the East in the early morning light (different culture and different faith from the Buddhists on the corner). Last weekend, about 8,000 Christian youth attended “Rock the River” just a few kilometres west of here. We took our grand-daughters to the Chilliwack agricultural fair last Friday, too!

Without straying far from home this summer, what cultural events can you attend? Once you’ve explored a bit, consider celebrating the diversity within your own workplace – a cultural potluck can be a wonderful start! The Cultural Diversity Yearbook, part of the SEED toolkit, is full of ideas for embracing diversity at work.

Interested in learning more about the SEED toolkit and other workplace diversity resources? Join us online for one week beginning September 22 for our Managing Diversity e-course!

Is Face-to-Face Learning As Good As Online?

Some of our Life Strategies Ltd. staff recently attended a webinar titled Online Effectiveness: Making Your Case. In this session panellist presented on how to structure and market online programs, with a lot of the discussion centred around getting students and faculty to buy-in to the value of online learning. It seems that providers of online education, such as us, constantly have to make a case for the quality and rigor of online programs.

One of the panellists suggested that we may need to reverse our thinking about online learning to consider if face-to-face is as good as online? It’s not fair to assume that just because a course is online, it’s of lesser quality. Students need to look at the format of the program (e.g., is it facilitated online learning, independent study, webinars, blogs), the content and depth of the program, and who the instructor/developer is. Also, consider how grades are allotted (e.g., assignments, discussions, exams, or are they provided at all). All these factors play a role in the quality and rigor of online programs.

In addition, students need to do their homework and figure out if online learning is an appropriate fit. Life Strategies Ltd. has an online readiness quiz (http://lifestrategies.ca/pdf/onlineReadinessQuiz.pdf). Take a look and see if you’re ready for online learning.

Lastly, reflect on what type of student you are. If you learn better in a traditional classroom setting then try mixed-mode courses which incorporate the best of both worlds. Learning works best when you’re engaged in the discussion and activities, whether it’s online or face-to-face.