This week has all been about building relationships. It’s a pet project of mine to define shared goals and work together with other groups making us all stronger and more effective in the process. I think that collaboration and mutual support will be key in serving the needs of our clients, employers, and government. If this sounds too “kumbaya” for your liking, I am guilty as charged without apology.

Earlier this week, you received an email from both ASPECT and the BC Career Development Association.  I was speaking to their Executive Director, Lubica Keighery, and she mentioned that the BCCDA needed more sponsors for their very well attended conferencein May as it is one of the association’s significant funding streams for the year. She asked if we could promote it through a targeted email, telegraphing to members on all sides that we do in fact work together. It makes sense for ASPECT to support career development to ensure a high level of excellence amongst our community of practice.  You’ll also start to see a BCCDA section in our Aspectives newsletter and vice versa, to further develop shared communication between our two associations and our members.

Mid-week, ASPECT organized a planning meeting to support the Contractor Solutions Team (CST) who are made up of WorkBC prime contractors. Under the last contract, CST represented all WorkBC contractors through coordinating information and communicating with the ministry; providing strategies, recommendations, and collaborating. Our Wednesday meeting was to determine if there was a still a desire to continue the CST and identify ways in which ASPECT could help. There is a small group of contractors -- all ASPECT members -- who are organizing an outreach to the 45 new/returning contractors.  If you are a prime contractor for WorkBC 2.0, you can expect to hear something from the group soon.  At that meeting, it was agreed that ASPECT would provide administrative support and advocacy support when needed.

And today, I had a wonderful chat with Christian St. Cyr, publisher of the BC Labour Market Report (BCLMR).  He is working on a special edition of the BC Labour Market Report: Employment Services Directory.  I should tell you that I love the work that Christian is doing through his BCLMR, his Summer Labour Market Conference, his BC Labour Market Online, and his Labour Market Year-In-Review workshops. He has been a dynamic speaker at the ASPECT Conference and has now agreed to either facilitate a panel or be a panelist at the ASPECT Summit on June 4 & 5, 2018.  As a means of bringing the sector together, Christian has also offered to talk about our Summit on his weekly radio program.

These emerging relationships are added to the long-standing formal relationships we maintain through board membership and ASPECT contributions such as BC Prior Learning Action Network, Canadian Coalition of Community-Based Employability Training, Canadian Council for Career Development, and more.

In this time of transition for our sector, I remain the optimist that we are being presented with the opportunity to rally together and promote the expertise, talent, and relationships we have. If you represent a provincial or national organization in the sector and would like to investigate a reciprocal relationship with ASPECT, I invite you to reach out to me. Working together makes us all stronger!