October 18/96

Staff Career Development

Staff Career Development Committee

Interested in Taking a Leave for Training Purposes?
Over the course of the year, Personnel Services offers
computer training for staff on campus. If you are
required to take refresher courses or further your job
related training outside of the College, a leave of
absence with pay will be granted by the College in
accordance with the staff Collective Agreement. The
College is responsible for the full cost of the courses
or training, including tuition, entrance or registration
fees, required books, etc.

The College will also consider a request for a leave
with pay for career development purposes. Any
employee may request a leave of four months or less;
if you are a regular employee with at least 9,100
hours of seniority, you may also apply for a leave of
greater than four months.

Your request may be submitted at any time; however,
requests for leave of greater than four months
duration will be considered once a year and the
annual deadline for this is April 1. Requests for
leaves of four months or less will be considered as
they are received.

Employees whose request for career development leave
is approved will be paid at the rate of 60 percent of
salary and benefits, pro-rata where applicable.

For some, another option is to request a leave without
pay for career development. Please refer to the
Collective Agreement, Article 19, for details, and
contact Personnel Services if you would like more
information.

New Opportunities for Individual Staff Career
Development

The Staff Career Development Committee has
designated funds for individual staff career
development activities. The committee is currently
working out the details, but staff will now be able to

apply for partial or full funding for career
development courses, seminars, conferences, etc.
The committee's priority will continue to be the
planning and implementation of College-wide
career development offerings for staff; however, any
carryover at the end of the year will be designated
for individual needs. Watch for complete details in
your mail about this very exciting new opportunity.

Welcome - Once Again - to Lynne Somerville
Lynne is certainly not new to the committee, but we
are pleased to welcome her to the position of
committee chair, replacing Liz Morton who is now
hard at work as a student at the College. Lynne has
brought a unique perspective to the committee's
work, stemming from both personal experience and
her work at the Student Employment Centre, and
we are pleased that she has taken on this new role.

Have You Signed Up for Computer Training?

A study conducted by Harris & Associates in the
U.S. found that 77 percent of 1,000 people surveyed
thought technology improves the quality of life, 55
percent feel overwhelmed by it and 42 percent
believe it's getting out of control.

The study also found that among the biggest
concerns over the latest technologies, almost half
said they worried about how quickly products
become outdated and 16 percent were concerned
about their ability to use the products to the fullest
potential.

Staff Career Development Committee

Elin Brnjac ext. 2549
Kathy Chute 2577
Val Lautenschlager 2058
Susan Rodgers 2707
Lynne Somerville, Chair 2392

The next Staff Career Development orkshop will be held in late Novemb

tails in the mail! —

@nformer

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