CNA students get experience through professional association
3/3/2011 12:33:18 PM
A pilot project at College of the North Atlantic (CNA) is giving Office Administration students valuable experience and boosting their skills inventories, before they start working in the field.
The project is the brainchild of Kelly Taylor-Hulan, who teaches Office Administration through the college’s Distributed Learning Service. She’s leading the pilot, in which students have formed two chapters of the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP). One chapter is for Taylor-Hulan’s distributed learning students and the other is for students at the college’s Prince Philip Drive campus.
IAAP has approximately 600 chapters worldwide, and Taylor-Hulan was a member of the association’s only online chapter.
“In Newfoundland and Labrador most of us are members at large, because we don’t have a chapter in our community,” she says. “The Eastern Canada division got in touch with the online chapter in the States and they allowed me to be a primary member.”
That experience gave Taylor-Hulan the tools she needed to set up an online chapter for her students.
“The benefit is that by participating in chapter activities students will gain skills that would probably take them years to obtain in the workplace,” she says, explaining that her first job in office administration involved little more than basic duties, like stapling invoices together.
“In the workplace, they won’t be members of committees, they won’t get to do meetings and take minutes until much later in their career,” she says. “By participating in a chapter you’re getting those skills and you can put them on your resume before you even graduate.”
Christina Parsons is secretary for the online student chapter of IAAP. She started her program at the Prince Philip Drive campus, but then moved to Lloydminster, Saskatchewan, and resumed her studies through CNA’s Distributed Learning Service (DLS).
“I think it’s a very good opportunity to find out some things that administrative professionals are doing out in the world, aside from what we’re doing in school,” she says. “It’s kind of a social thing too because you get to meet people who are already working and get advice and tips on what to expect.”
Parsons says she’s looking forward to putting some of the things she’s learning into practice.
“The things you learn in school are easier to learn if you apply them to something in practice,” she says. ”By taking minutes and distributing them to classmates and instructors and getting some feedback, I’ll get a feeling for what it’s like in the workplace.”
College of the North Atlantic offers the Office Administration program at 12 of its campuses and through the Distributed Learning Service. Areas of specialization in the program include: Executive, Legal, Medical, and Records and Information Management. Students have the option of completing a one-year Office Administration Certificate or a two-year diploma.
CNA is the first Canadian college to receive international accreditation of Business Administration, Business Management and Office Administration programs from the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP). Seats are still available for September enrolment, call 1-888-982-2268 to learn more, visit www.cna.nl.ca or connect with us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CNANewfoundlandLabrador.
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Media Contact:
Gina MacArthur
Public Information Officer
College of the North Atlantic
Ph: 709-643-6408
gina.macarthur@cna.nl.ca