ACT Proclaims Learn at Work Week 2008

Advance Corporate Training Ltd. supports lifelong learning through workplace and empowerment initiatives. To this end, we are joining organizations, institutions and communities across Canada to celebrate Learn at Work Week 2008. Visit our facebook group in August for a list of open-registration events and more on what we are doing for our own team.

About Learn At Work Week

It is well documented that Canadian firms are falling behind in investing in skills development. However, it is also well documented that learning has a positive impact on key business measures such as job performance and productivity. The weeklong celebration includes a number of activities and events designed to promote the importance of workplace learning and performance to key stakeholders and the public-at-large.

The goals of the Learn @ Work Week initiative are:

• To raise awareness of the impact of workplace learning

• To celebrate the best practices of workplace learning

• To celebrate the success of the ‘learning organization’

The proclamation...

We, Advance Corporate Training Ltd. recognize that:

1. Lifelong learning of Canadians impacts our economy, thereby ensuring the quality and security of jobs and raising our standard of living
2. Creating a culture of learning in the workplace positively impacts key measures such as job performance and productivity
3. ‘Learning organizations’ which exemplify best practices in workplace learning must be celebrated.

Now, therefore, I (We), Janet Dean, President, Advance Corporate Training Ltd. do hereby proclaim September 22-26, 2008 as Learn @ Work Week and urge Canadian organizations to join CSTD and Learn @ Work Week Champions in our community to celebrate that investing in developing people benefits the Canadian workforce and impacts our economic well-being.

For more information visit the Canadian Society for Training and Development at http://www.cstd.ca/

May I have this dance?….

After many episodes of Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance and one I'm embarassed to say I have seen (Master of Dance)...I was reviewing some workplace trends and discovered a theme...you'll see it in all our blogs this week... please read on...

Dancing close to your partner was an 18th century innovation that we know as the waltz. This metaphor well describes the workplace of the past where staff were expected to align their personal mandate closely with the corporate mandate and to mirror and model their boss to be able to climb the corporate ladder.

Today’s innovative workplaces are closer to another dance of the 17th and 18th century - minuets, where partners dance to the same rhythm but separately and loosely coupled. Today’s staff need the freedom of personal expression and individualism, not reminders to toe the company line. The minuet picked up tempo depending on the dancer and the musician… today’s workplaces must also demonstrate this situational flexibility.

And the future?

Well.. welcome back the Jitterbug! During the early 1900s, the Jitterbug was a dance performed by swing dancers who danced without any control or knowledge of the dance. This term was famously associated with swing era dancers by band leader Cab Calloway because, as he put it, "They look like a bunch of jitterbugs out there on the floor" due to their fast often bouncy movements on the dance floor.

In the future, our workplaces will rely less and less on the inherent expertise of our workers and more on tools and resources of expertise (like the content-rich aspects of the Internet, and the new generation of workplace productivity software). With our future employees expected to be less loyal and more mobile and the boomers aging out of the workforce, organizations will keep dancing but it will be the musicians who know the dance and the dancers who bring their energy and willingness to “jitterbug” that will take us in new, unknown directions.

Good Course - Good Cause

ACT gets up to par!

Tony Procure,Operations Manager with Advance Corporate Training, joined Kent O'Sullivan, Bryan Lowes and Rick Cox at the 5th Annual Drive to Stay Alive Charity Golf Tournament on Thursday June 19, 2008 at the Redwoods Golf Course in Langley, BC.

There was plenty of fun, great food, prizes, networking and a great day of golf, and the rain even managed to stay away.

Net proceeds from the BC Safety Council Golf Tournament will help support our Youth Injury Prevention Initiatives.

Ever wonder if our logo is a "hole in the head?"

Advance Corporate Training Ltd. (ACT) is a brain-based learning specialist - our logo represents the six key secrets to ensuring learning takes hold in the learner and can transfer back to the workplace. Here are the six secrets and why engaging each one of them encourages higher learning levels.

Personal Relevance
(Association Cortex)
When we associate learning with what we already know, we are more open to a new idea. Info that supports our existing knowledge is better retained and transferred on-the-job.

Kinesthetic Learning
(Motor Cortex)
When we are engaged physically while learning, our brain operates more efficiently and we are better able to apply learned skills consistently.

Emotion & Engagement
(Somatosensory Cortex)
Emotion is often missing in many adult learning environments. When we emotionally connect to the material we learn more and deeper. ACT designs all its courses to engage this cortex.

Auditory Learning
(Auditory Cortex)
When we listen and speak we deepen our understanding. This cortex needs time to engage, so the start of all conversations should be “losable” data.

Visual Learning
(Visual Cortex)
We all need to have visual stimulation to be energized by learning. If we visualize our changed performance, we are more able to achieve it.

Broca's Area
Our ability to communicate clearly and to understand complex concepts is controlled here. Without learning that engages this area of the brain, we know but we don't understand and can't share our knowledge. True learning occurs after we achieve understanding, and performance change can not occur without understanding. This area was identified in 1861 by Pierre Paul Broca to be the “seat of articulation”.

ACT Advances with a new appointment

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Shelly Nizar to the position of Staff Trainer/Learner Consultant, and PEAK Program Manager.

Shelly has recently moved back to Vancouver from San Francisco. Through Shelly’s extensive national and international travels, she brings over 20 years of facilitating and management experience; her expertise lies primarily in the fields of workforce development, retail and computers .

She is eager, energized and excited to meet and interact with existing and prospective Retail PEAK Trainers.

Our goal for the 2009 and 2010 year is to grow and enhance learning which will develop an expanding and progressive Retail industry. Shelly will be connecting with all existing trainers to conduct a short survey, to see how we can meet and exceed your needs.

With the Olympics on the horizon, more requests are coming in for front-line customer service, and sales and management development; at PEAK, we will be anticipating the growing needs in this ever changing and dynamic industry.

Model Activity at ACT

We always knew we were THE place to be!

Earlier this week, ACT offices were a buzz with excitement as the home of a rooftop photoshoot for a new clothing line. The clothes were interesting, the photographer active and the models COLD!

Oddest though - was the model who put on a teddy bear hat and gloves after posing beside one - she BECAME the bear!

Check out the shoot!

Click on an image for a closer view.

ACT Ltd. joins forces with the BC Safety Council

Together we tighten the focus on safety in the workplace.

On June 1, 2008, Advance Corporate Training Ltd. will join forces with the BC Safety Council to expand their repertoire of workplace training solutions for safety and occupational health and wellness. The BCSC has a long history of working for improved safety and injury prevention for front line workers, supervisors and safety officers. In recent years it has increasingly grown aware that the best safety programs will produce only minimal effects unless management and leadership share the same vision and commitment.

Bryan Lowes, BCSC Executive Director says, “we know that safety is a front line issue but it is also much more than that. When organizations don’t up skill their people or support Safety and Health initiatives from the top down, the vitality and productivity of their enterprise is at risk. It takes active participation from the top down to make it so.” The new partnership brings in Advance Corporate Training Ltd.’s expertise, resources and experience in leadership and management training to help spread the safety message to this underserved organizational level.
Janet Dean, Advance Corporate Training Ltd. President adds, “We too share the vision of active, committed organizational leadership in all aspects of strategic focus including Safety, Heath and Wellness. By joining forces with BCSC we hope to improve workplace safety awareness for all workers in BC.”

When seeking a partner, BCSC went looking for a training company who could round out their strengths and yet shared their same vision of effectiveness – integrity – vision and found it right in their own back yard. Advance Corporate Training Ltd. is a New- Westminster based international training company that has been providing workplace training solutions for over 18 years.

This new partnership will co-create specialized programming, share resources and compliment each others client services while focusing on helping business and individuals prevent injury through safety education.

For more information contact;

Kent O’Sullivan

kent_osullivan@safetycouncil.bc.ca

British Columbia Safety Council
TEL 604 214 7433
http://www.safetycouncilbc.ca/

Tony Procure

admin@actraining.com
Advance Corporate Training Ltd.

TEL 604 521 5473

http://www.actraining.com/