Conrad Murphy, Director of TOWES & Centre for Career Advancement, Bow Valley College, participated in ”Essential Skills in Apprenticeship”, a dialogue hosted by Canadian Apprenticeship Forum (CAF-FCA) on February 24, 2011. Guests representing various stakeholders from across Canada, including school boards, provincial and federal government departments, unions, industry associations and other organizations, joined the CAF-FCA Board of Directors to discuss some of the best and most promising practices for integrating Essential Skills training into employee development, particularly for apprentices and within the skilled trades.

To learn more and view presentations: Essential Skills & Apprenticeship

Our very own Kaesy Russnak (TOWES Project Officer) will be facilitating a training session in Mozambique this October. Kaesy’s expertise in Essential Skills and his experience with facilitator, learner and test administrator training make him the ideal candidate to represent TOWES and BVC in this international development project. Kaesy will be facilitating this workshop alongside Denise Theunissen (BVC-Learner Success Services) and with the support of BVC’s International Education Department. This project is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency  and is part of the Association of Canadian Community Colleges Education for Employment program. Read The Current for more details.

Are you in the Calgary area?

Watch for a special offer from TOWES in your local newspapers tomorrow (Thursday March 25^th). We are part of an exciting initiative, Essential Skills Workplace Services (ESWS);  a project that allows us to offer local area employers up to 28 days of no cost Essential Skills consulting services for their staff.

Look for the ad in the following local publications:

• Calgary Herald
• Calgary Sun
• 24 Hours
• Metro

If you are interested in this opportunity please contact us.

Did you know that Continuous Learning is one of the 9 Essential Skills?

This week, the entire TOWES team participated in Continuous Learning, as we attended the Bow Valley College PD day.

The theme of this year’s PD Day was: “Sustainability – Living and Learning Beyond Tomorrow. The day kicked off with an engaging key note address by Ken Steele of Academica Group Inc. on Emerging Trends and Sustainability in the World of Post Secondary Education.

Have you checked out Academica’s “Top Ten”?

Not only were we busy learning about different initiatives going on at BVC and participating in sessions to learn new ideas and skills we can apply in our work, some of our team participated by making presentations, including a presentation on teaching Essential Skills in Namibia and Enhancing Sustainability through Customer Service.
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