STEPHENVILLE, NL – When thinking about the trades industry, it may be difficult for a journeyperson to imagine that aspects of their training can occur online even while they continue working.
Enter College of the North Atlantic’s (CNA) Atlantic Trades Business Seal program, which was piloted by CNA during the 2019-2020 academic year. The result was 11 graduates receiving certificates for the first-ever offering of the program that was delivered exclusively online via the college’s Distributed Learning Service. The program has been approved to run again this fall starting September 28.
Theresa Pittman, Associate Vice President of CNA’s Connected Learning Network, explains the program is designed for journeypersons to advance their business and leadership skills and to gain regional career mobility.
“What makes this program different is the fact we are helping tradespeople, who already have their credentials and who want to advance their careers, to gain a skillset that will help them achieve their goals,” said Pittman, noting the program was funded by the Department of Education. “Existing business owners who take this program will benefit from this additional knowledge and skills training to take their business to the next level. We are excited to see this program succeed in its first offering and look forward to more opportunities."
Paul Tilley, a Business Management instructor at Clarenville campus, developed and delivered this unique program.
Paul Tilley, a Business Management instructor at CNA’s Clarenville campus, developed and delivered the unique online Atlantic Trades Business Seal program. A successful first year with 11 graduates is now ready for its second offering in late September.
Anyone who enrolled in Atlantic Trades Business Seal was there for a reason, he notes, whether it was to advance within their own trade, prepare for a managerial role within a company, start their own business, or expand their credentials.
Tilley would meet with students using D2L Virtual Classroom once a week to review the program’s content and answer any questions they may have about any of the modules that were completed throughout the week. Included in the program modules, each of which ran for 30 hours over six weeks, were: Human Resources Management; Financial Management; Marketing and Sales; Operations Management; and, Business Planning.
“The 11 students were great,” Tilley recalled. “It was interesting to see such a diverse group of people with a variety of backgrounds come together to learn about skills that were relevant to other aspects of their trades and to the business sector at the same time. All the materials covered were also consolidated into a topic explainer video that would be posted following the class. This helped the students immensely in being able to reference the material after the fact, given that they were also working and balancing their personal lives.”
Bernard Peddle is an electrician based in Deer Lake, who completed the Construction/Industrial Electrician program at Corner Brook campus. He had not previously done any online learning, and felt Tilley made the transition a positive experience.
“I feel like the course filled a gap that was keeping me back from starting my own small business, and I cannot thank CNA enough for helping me to feel confident in my venture,” said Peddle.
Another student was a fellow instructor, Tilley added, which was extremely helpful, as he provided exceptional feedback that could be used to improve various aspects of the course.
To see the program’s modules, please visit the following
link. To apply for this program, visit
www.cna.nl.ca.
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Media contact:
Michelle Barry
Communications Manager
College of the North Atlantic
709-643-7721
Michelle.barry@cna.nl.ca