I’ve spent the morning in meetings discussing professional development opportunities for ASPECT members and the employment services sector at large. It’s an exciting time as many of the contracts have been awarded, and organizations are looking at ways to get the best value for their professional development budgets. Although we don’t have all the details worked out, I wanted to give you a heads up of what learning opportunities are coming your way.

 
ASPECT Conference 2019 – November 4 & 5, 2019, Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel
 
The ASPECT Conference is the event of the year with something for everyone: case managers, resource centre staff, job developers, workshop facilitators, administrators, program managers, instructors and counsellors, leaders and emerging leaders. Check out the program and register before October 4 for early bird discounts.
 
ASPECT Values-Based Leadership – Face-to-Face November 3 & April 21 plus online learning courses
 
We’ve partnered with Dr. Roberta Neault and LifeStrategies Inc. to create a leadership training course for the busy leader and/or the emerging leader at an affordable price. Dates and registration will be confirmed next week, but the ASPECT Values-Based Leadership course includes two face-to-face learning sessions where core courses are taught and discussed allowing you to build your essential network, plus 5-9 online courses with pre-learning, webinar lecture, forum discussions and learning assessment. 
 
If you sign up for the whole program, you can expect to pay around $1,000 for a credentialed Leadership designation. Can’t commit? We’ve also designed the leadership training course to be accessible to those who may want to take only parts of the course. Once you’ve read the course topics, you’ll want to take everything.

• Core course topics are: What is Leadership?; Self-Awareness, Confidence & Values; Trust, Motivation & Recognition; Leadership within the Organizational Context; Leading for Change; and Leadership: Where Do We Go from Here?
• Elective course topics are: Leadership Lessons for Transformational Times; Supervising Career Development Practitioners; A Social Justice Approach to Leadership; HR Life Hacks for Leaders and Advocacy; Leadership & Communication; and Teams & Leadership.

Webinars & Workshops – Call for Presenters
 
This year we will offer five face-to-face workshops and a minimum of 10 webinars, some of which will be free and some of which will be exceptionally affordable. If you have a topic or expertise that you would like to share with our networks, please email me. Some of the topics in development are Time Management Strategies for Client Meetings, Interpreting Psychological Assessments and When to Seek Help, Goal Setting Chaos, Gender Identity and Inclusion, and more. 
 
ASPECT Summit 2020 – April 22, 2020, Marriott Vancouver Airport Hotel
 
This employer-facing summit will bring together employers and employment experts to help employers connect with the pre- and post-employment supports available in their communities and to help employment experts (service providers) further develop their offerings to employers within their communities. The date is set, but more information is coming soon.

There are lots of opportunities to learn and build your networks. If you are looking for training but don't see it mentioned above, contact me with your ideas and we'll see if we can deliver it.  More details coming soon.

Janet Morris-Reade