Menu
Log in



Log in

Member Login


  • May 21, 2021 11:47 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Future Skills Centre Announcement

    This week I attended a call with the Future Skills Centre (FSC) where they announced the Scaling Up Skills Development program. The FSC is further investing $25.9 million to expand on some of the projects piloted two years ago. Congratulations to the BC Immigrant Employment Council (IECBC) for the successes they have had in their FAST program who are now being given the funding to build on their success. The FAST program supports skilled immigrants in specific fields connect to the Canadian workforce pre-arrival.

    IECBC CEO Patrick McKenzie presented at our Summit and even though the project was up and running for a short time, they were already seeing significant positive results. Kudos to Patrick and his team for their work. 

    Report Re-Defining Essential Skills

    Also this week, the Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC) released their new Skills for Success model providing a detailed description of the nine key skills. Their goal is to test the new model and garner feedback from the field. This is another opportunity for career practitioners to determine what fits and what doesn't within your practice. I encourage you to take a moment to review the report and submit your feedback to SRDC.

     

    Janet Morris-Reade
    ASPECT CEO
  • May 14, 2021 11:42 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)


    Our Virtual Skills for Career Development Practitioners research project, funded by the Future Skills Centre, is moving quickly through the Literature Review phase. We have created a long list of questions that we are hoping previously published research will answer. Here are a few of them:

    • Did the move to virtual services exacerbate existing challenges serving clients?
    • What are the new challenges since moving to virtual services? 
    • Why is this research important? 
    • Has the typical percentage of time given to topics changed with moving online?
    • Has the move online changed delivering counselling skills, such as active listening or motivational interviewing?
    During the last week of May, we will host two meetings of our Virtual Learning Consortium (VLC). The first meeting will be to review the project and the expectations of the VLC. We will also have facilitated discussions around the personal experiences of CDPs transitioning to online services. The second meeting will be a continuation of personal experience discussions and a review of the online survey questions. 

    Thank you to our VLC members for volunteering to be a part of this project:
    • Michelle Luhr, YMCA of Greater Vancouver
    • Shameemah Kalaichelvan, Progressive Intercultural Community Services (PICS) 
    • Jo-Ann Baker, Community Futures North Okanagan 
    • Bruce Buxton, Buxton Consulting
    • Janet Evans, Triangle Community Resources
    • Kyla Kershaw, Workforce Development Consulting of Northern BC
    • Annette Borrows, Community Futures South Fraser & Canadian Association of Supported Employment
    • TBD, Kootenay Career Development Society

    Want to be involved in this project? You can respond to our online survey in June and if you have a specialized area of practice serving an underrepresented group, then you can volunteer to be a part of our facilitated focus groups in July.  Please contact me if you have any questions about the project. I'm always excited to talk about it!

    Janet Morris-Reade
    ASPECT CEO


  • May 07, 2021 12:00 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)


    Our Future Skills Centre-funding research project, Virtual Skills for Career Development Practitioners, is at full force this week with the start of our new research assistants. Welcome to Erica Thomson and Bennett King-Nyberg!

    The research team, overseen by Dr. Roberta Borgen, has already started compiling articles for the literature review, and the researchers are learning everything they can about the sector.

    This week I had an opportunity to address the BC Career Development Association board of directors and share the work we are doing. I was delighted to hear their offers of help to get the word out about the research project by helping us find more respondents from other areas of practice to respond to our online survey. My very ambitious goal is to receive 500 completed survey responses which would provide us with a substantial data set to support our findings. This project is a community-based project where those Career Development Professionals delivering services directly to the clients are the experts and have the opportunity for their voices to inform policy. Along with our project partners, Ethos Career Management Group, and our Virtual Learning Consortium, made up of practitioners from nine ASPECT member organizations, we will collect evidence to inform sector interventions and government funding decisions.

    To those 9 CDPs from our learning consortium, you can expect to receive an invitation to our first meeting very soon. To all of you who will be participating through the online survey and/or the focus groups, we will keep you posted on our progress every week in Aspectives news. It's an exciting time, and we are moving a million miles an hour, but I am so excited to be doing this research on behalf of the sector. 

    Janet Morris-Reade
    ASPECT CEO


  • April 23, 2021 10:43 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)



    For those of you who attended our Annual General Meeting on April 7, you'll know that we re-welcomed five board members to make up our board complement of seven. These volunteers are hardworking, thoughtful, and always put the sector's needs at the forefront of every decision they make for ASPECT members. They work on committees, attend weekly member meetings and monthly board meetings, support our conference sessions, and keep me abreast of developing issues that our members may face. I am proud of the contribution that every one of them provides ASPECT and appreciative of their support of me in this position. Although we are at the end of national volunteer week, I still wanted you all to be aware of the work they do on your behalf.

    Board of Directors

  • April 16, 2021 12:08 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    As numbers surge into the 3rd wave of the pandemic, our Virtual Member Discussion this week touched on what organizations are doing now and what the immediate future might look like. We discussed that there are those concerned about the AstraZenica side effects amongst our community and those who are concerned that staff within their organizations will not consent to receive the vaccine at all. The concern was how to accommodate the rising level of anxieties that the promise of the vaccine brings.

    One member on the call told us how, in their remote community, an employer brought a public health expert to answer workers' concerns. The vaccine hesitancy within the group almost completely disappeared. 

    One member from the March of Dimes, which has its roots in the polio outbreaks of the mid-1900s, provided a resource that their organization produced in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Called "Mission Immunity" this web page provides a ton of resources to understand the available information. Some of the questions answered on the site are:

    1. Why get the shot?
    2. Are we sure the vaccines are safe when they were created so quickly?
    3. What if I decide not to get vaccinated?
    4. With variant strains becoming dominant, will the vaccines still be effective?
    5. What about long-term side effects?

    Some members on the call shared that their organization's policy is to give their staff the day off to get the vaccine. This, I think, is a generous encouragement going beyond the half-day being proposed by the province.

    Finally, I understand that vaccines are a charged topic for many, and I'm taking a risk writing about it in Aspectives. I know even in my own family, there are some firm opinions on both sides of the COVID-19 debate. Our common ground lies in our exhaustion with the pandemic and its effect on our lives. I hope that you will take the information that has been provided here as an act of support and encouragement rather than one of judgement.
     

    Janet Morris-Reade
    CEO

  • April 09, 2021 2:07 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)


    We have two really big announcements this week.
     

    Future Skills Centre Research Project

     
    Announced last Wednesday at 6:00 am, I can now tell you that ASPECT, along with our project partner Ethos Career Management Group, was one of 64 projects chosen out of 469 proposals by the Future Skills Centre for Shockproof funding. 
     
    With the support of nine advisory committee organizations from the ASPECT membership and the support of all our members, we will study the current competencies of Career Development Professionals to deliver virtual services to those with barriers to employment, while looking at ways to build competencies should there be any gaps in knowledge. We are a group of community-based experts, and my concern is that in the future governments may rely on virtual services without realizing the effects on youth, Indigenous populations, women fleeing violence, refugees, immigrants, older workers, and those with diverse abilities. It is hoped that this research is phase 1 with a training pilot, that is yet to be funded, as phase 2. World-renowned scholar, Dr. Roberta Borgen (Neault), will be overseeing our research along with two research assistants. 
     
    The research activities will take place between May-August and are as follows:
     
    1. Conduct a literature review
    2. Advisory group meetings to discuss the transition to virtual services and helping clients.
    3. An online survey sent out province-wide to CDPs
    4. Conduct focus group discussions of CDPs who offer services to underrepresented clients in both urban and rural and remote locations.
    5. Report and recommendations vetted and approved by the advisory group
    Congratulations to ASPECT members who also received Shock-Proofing Project funding:
    AEST Funding for Professional Development

    Our popular procurement workshops are back, but now in a virtual format.

    The two-day in-person workshop has been transformed into 3-hour workshops in a series of four learning streams. Because of the collaborative nature of these workshops, class size is limited and the workshops will not be recorded.

    This training is free of charge with the support of the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Training and could prove to be quite popular. For that reason we request the following:

    • No more than 3 people from one organization can register per learning stream at a time.
    • If you can't make a session, please cancel your registration so that someone else on the waiting list can attend.

    1. PROCUREMENT 101

    This workshop is intended for those who have little to no experience responding to government solicitations, or who feel that they need a refresher course on how procurement works within the BC Government. This course provides introductory information on how government procurement works. Topics covered will be:

    1. Types of Opportunities 
    2. Mandatory Requirements 
    3. Price-based Solicitations 
    4. Scored Solicitations 
    5. Asking Questions 
    6. Contract Award and Debriefs 

    Dates offered:

    2. PROPOSAL WRITING

    This workshop is intended for those who are responsible to write proposals on behalf of their organization for government-scored solicitations.  It will be particularly useful to those who are new to this role or have not been as successful as they expected in the proposals written to date. Topics covered will be:

    1. Structure of the Proposal 
    2. What to Include 
    3. What to Avoid 
    4. Practice Writing a Proposal 
    5. Debrief the Proposals
    6. Information Available in a Debrief 

    Dates offered:

    3. HOW GOVERNMENT EVALUATES PROPOSALS

    This workshop is intended for those who are experienced in writing proposals but are unclear what happens after closing. It gives a “behind the scenes” glimpse into what Government does with proposals to determine the successful vendor. Topics covered will be:

    1. Government’s Evaluation Process 
    2. Evaluation “Rules”
    3. Practice Evaluating Proposals
    4. Which Proposal is Successful? Why? 

    Dates offered:

    4. WHAT EXECUTIVES NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PROCUREMENT

    This workshop is intended for those in leadership roles who make the decisions on the opportunities that the organization responds to, and who sign-off on the submissions.  his course explains the procurement framework that applies to how Government selects its contractors. Topics covered will be:

    1. Overall Procurement Framework 
    2. Legal Environment 
    3. Trade Agreements 
    4. Policy & Legislative Environment 
    5. Identify Procurement Risks 
    6. Debrief Procurement Risks
    7. Remedies for Disagreement
    Dates offered:
    For full information and to register, go to our Procurement Workshop webpage.

    Janet Morris-Reade
    ASPECT BC CEO


  • March 26, 2021 11:17 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)


    This week I wanted to focus on an essential piece of research called the Social Service Labour Market Research Project. The project was funded by the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Training, and lead by the Federation of Community Social Services of BC, the Community Social Services Employers Association of BC, and the Social Planning and Research Council of BC. 

    ASPECT served on the advisory committee, and many of our members participated in the research conducted in 2019. The results timelessly fill a void in academic investigation.

    Research Questions:
    • What is the current state of employment in BC’s community social services sector?

    • What labour market data is needed to fill in the gaps of what we know about the community social services sector in BC?

    • What are the recruitment and retention issues within the community social services sector in BC? (from p. 5)

      The research revealed the following:
    • Social services organizations are experiencing an increasing degree of complexity in their work—in the needs of clients, in their funding, and in the recruitment and retention of their employees and volunteers.

    • There is ample room for improvement when it comes to education and training within the social services sector.

    • Organizations are struggling to meet multiple and growing service demands with the limited time and resources currently available to them.

    • There is a lot of potential in terms of how people understand the sector and are welcomed into the sector as employees or volunteers and there is a lot of interest from those already within the sector to improve how this is done. (from p.8 )

    The report confirms much of what we already knew about the impact of cyclical funding and the resulting challenges to attract and retain qualified staff. Check out a Data Aggregate version of the report, too. 

    Anyone negotiating contracts that include staff compensation and/or those who search for words to describe the labour market inequities within the sector will find the report to be a gold mine of information. There is a lot to unpack in this information-rich report that I hope you'll take a moment to read.

    Janet Morris-Reade
    ASPECT CEO

  • March 18, 2021 2:04 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    My CEO Report is a bit of a mixed bag this week. 


    ASPECT Conference 21

    Register now before March 31st and you'll receive a $100 discount for the ASPECT Conference 21. This is for those of you who want to spend your professional development dollars on high-quality learning before the fiscal year-end. The call for presenters will come out in April and the program will be set in June so registering now is like buying a mystery grab-bag at the corner store.

    Based on our highly reviewed offering last year, here's what you can expect:
    1. Two-days of 22 virtual sessions from which to choose.
    2. Two keynote speakers, government representation, panel discussions, and collaborative workshops.
    3. Content for frontline workers, career developers, and organizational managers and leaders.
    4. An interactive conference platform with Play-to-Win prizes and promotions.
    5. 30-minute breaks between each session to help you rest from potential zoom fatigue.



    Register Now


    AEST Appendix K

    In the recent Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Training call for qualifications, there was an "Appendix K" call and many of our members are waiting for the Request for Proposal. Although an official communication is coming soon from the ministry, I can tell you that the RFP will not come within the next two weeks. 

    The processes within the government to undertake proposal evaluations, award notifications, and contract negotiations take time, especially in light of the many opportunities coming out at once. 


    ASPECT Virtual Annual General Meeting

    We have set the date for our virtual AGM on Wednesday, April 7 at 1:00 pm. This falls at the same time as our weekly member meetings and we will likely have time after the AGM to have a discussion as usual for those who wish to attend.  

    Please click on the links below to access the AGM documents:

    1. Agenda
    2. Minutes from the 2018-2019 AGM held March 17, 2020
    3. Slate of Directors
    4. Proxy Form
    5. Financial Review 2019-2020 (one will be sent upon request)
    6. Provide Feedback to the Board

    We look forward to seeing you there!
     

    Janet Morris-Reade
    ASPECT CEO
  • March 05, 2021 11:40 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    I have been watching the Prime Minister again this morning, and we finally have some unexpected good news with regards to the pandemic: the Jansen Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been approved in Canada, plus the existing vaccine suppliers are promising larger, earlier deliveries allowing people to be vaccinated ahead of schedule. This news, along with statements from Dr. Bonnie Henry yesterday that we could see a return to some level of normalcy by this summer, is a nice bit of hope to start the weekend. What does this mean for employment and the demand for employment services in BC?

    We expected a surge last September, and then again in January, for demand on services that never materialized. However, with this more hopeful news, we can expect the long-awaited surge in early summer. It is likely that service industries most devastated by the pandemic might finally see significant returns. Also, on my call with the BC Chamber of Commerce last week, it was stated more than once that BC is poised for a quick recovery compared to the rest of Canada. 

    My mind is doing flips at the potential possibilities. The employment service sector has proven how quickly it can pivot in its response to the pandemic's highs and lows. It will be interesting to see how we respond to a drastic opening of the labour market. In the meantime, I will quietly celebrate the good news and imagine the opportunities in our future and how ASPECT can support the sector.
     

    Janet Morris-Reade
    CEO

  • February 19, 2021 12:08 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    At this morning's briefing from Prime Minister Trudeau, I was expecting to hear about the vaccine rollout and the public safety legislation. What I didn't expect was extensions for the Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB), the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit (CRSB), the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit (CRCB), and Employment Insurance (EI).


    Here are the details:
    • CRB benefit extended from 26 weeks to 38 weeks
    • CRCB benefit also extended from 26 to 38 weeks
    • CRSB benefit is extended from 2 weeks to 4 weeks
    • EI benefit is extended from 26 weeks to 50 weeks

    As I write this, the Canada.ca website has not been updated with the new information, but you can link to the CBC news story here or watch the announcement below.

    Janet Morris-Reade
    ASPECT BC, CEO



300 - 722 Cormorant Street | Victoria, BC | V8W 1P8

Toll Free: 1-888-287-4957
Telephone: 250-382-9675

Email: info@aspect.bc.ca

ASPECT is proud to be a Living Wage Employer    
   


Copyright © Association of Service Providers for Employability and Career Training
Privacy Policyf

Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software