PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PIVOTS

Chartered Professional

Accountants of British

Columbia CEO Lori

Mathison has overseen her

organization’s pivot during

the pandemic • CHUNG CHOW

Content and course delivery conform to the COVID-19 era

GLEN KORSTROM

It is hard to overstate how much the COVID-19 pandemic transformed society throughout 2020.

Because the virus altered how people lived, worked and socialized, it is not surprising that it also changed how they learned, as well as what they educated themselves about.

Professional associations that deliver continuing education had to pivot, much like the rest of society.

That meant shifting instruction to be either entirely online, or almost exclusively online, instead of what had been the dominant practice: in-person training. “Of course, nobody anticipated the pandemic, but we got involved back in 2019 in investing in online education, and it was the smartest thing we ever did,” says Darlene Hyde, CEO of the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA). “This year we’ve just been cranking out online material.”

Hyde estimated that overall attendance in professional development training programs reached 13,531 course attendees in the first 10 months of 2020 – up more than 11% compared with the same period in 2019. Online course enrolment was up 96% to 5,124 students, although online revenue was only up 66% because the BCREA provided discounts.

Pre-pandemic, the BCREA offered online programs but realtors usually preferred participating in classroom settings because, Hyde says, they are sociable people who enjoy the connection that they get from seeing each other, shaking hands and slapping backs.

Many will undoubtedly want to return to those social settings, but it is unlikely that those kinds of gatherings will ever be as dominant as they once were. “It’s like the elastic band analogy, when you stretch an elastic band and it never really goes back to its original size,” Hyde said. “This is a tipping point. I think even after we’ve all got vaccines in our arms, and it’s the second half of 2021, I don’t think we will go back, exactly, to pre-COVID habits.”

BCREA’s pre-pandemic professional development courses were held across the province, and, as such, cost significantly more money to hold than ones that were exclusively online. The BCREA passed those higher in-person costs on to registrants in the form of higher fees.

The cost savings of providing online education – and the ease to which realtors can watch the course instruction at a time of their choosing – are some other factors that are likely to ensure that online instruction remains a big part of BCREA’s continuing education offerings.

Providing courses was not a major part of the BCREA’s budget, and the courses continue to be provided largely on a cost-recovery basis, so there is no incentive there for the BCREA to restrict future offerings to be exclusively in-person and not also online.

Most of BCREA’s budget comes from member dues, and Hyde describes the organization as a “small and nimble firm” that naturally gravitated toward seeking out cost-effective platforms that were able to provide the best instruction for the highest number of people.

CHANGING CONTENT

Content has evolved – sometimes in ways that were influenced by the pandemic, and sometimes in ways that were not.

For example, the problem of laundered money being used to buy real estate and luxury goods has risen as a concern among realtors, lawyers and the public at large, particularly given the Cullen Commission’s inquiry.

BCREA courses help realtors learn why it is important to flag certain transactions, and how to report them, Hyde says.

Law Society of British Columbia director of communications Jason Kuzminski tells BIV that lawyers were similarly seeking information on how to appropriately act so as to avoid being involved with money laundering. “We created a trust-assurance program because one of the biggest issues going on right now with the Cullen Commission is around what are we doing to provide information to the profession so they know that they are doing client identification appropriately, and managing their trust accounts,” he said. “We did a three-hour webinar that was free.”

Content that professional organizations offered that was directly related to the pandemic included some BCREA sessions early in the year on how to hold virtual open houses, and what safety protocols were necessary.

The Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia (CPABC) similarly changed what was taught in professional development courses to stay current. “The lack of detailed information on rapidly rolled out government subsidy and funding programs during the initial days of COVID-19 was a huge challenge for our CPA members,” says CPABC CEO Lori Mathison. “In order to serve their clients and employers, CPAs had to rely on the limited technical information that was available when these programs were initially introduced. Our professional development experts and instructors were in the same boat, but rose to the occasion and provided key information to our members.”

One huge challenge was to provide up-to-date courses on rapidly changing tax measures.

During one free live online professional development seminar, the federal government announced a significant change to its Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy program.

That required immense flexibility from the instructor to switch gears and explain just-announced changes to attendees, Mathison said. “In addition to offering timely professional development seminars on the new initiatives, CPABC established a

Here is the instructor’s console, where a virtual class is about to take place • BCREA

COVID-19 resource centre on our website that was updated daily in the first three months of COVID-19 to provide important timely and relevant information, and external resources, for both CPAs and the public,” she said.

Because the CPA Canada Handbook has been updated with new standards, CPABC has been inundated with demand for seminars related to these new standards.

Seminars on ethics have also been popular. “As we settled into this new normal, seminars on personal development, working remotely and managing teams have been popular this fall,” Mathison says. “Seminars on technology, including hands-on Excel training, have also been popular. In addition, wealth management and financial planning seminars are also very popular.”

In contrast, CPABC has had to cancel seminar offerings that it was not able to convert into being held online, as some seminars require tangible environments or group work.

While the Law Society of British Columbia accredits courses and ensures that practising lawyers complete at least 12 hours of continuing education per year, education for lawyers is performed by various organizations, including the Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia (CLEBC).

Its CEO, Linda Russell, told BIV that the CLEBC, like the BCREA and CPABC, has seen a significant shift toward online instruction.

She counted 78 in-person courses in her organization’s fiscal year that ended June 30, 2019. That fell to 46 in-person courses in the year ended June 30, 2020 – with zero such courses since then.

Russell estimated that overall attendance in courses is up by about 15%, as more people have been flocking to online offerings.

Popular new courses were centred on procedures that arose as a result of the pandemic, such as how to file affidavits.

Other popular courses were on how to practice various legal niches while working remotely. “Right now, we don’t have any courses planned for in-person because we’re safety-first,” Russell says. “We’ll continue doing the online courses, and when it’s safe, we’ll go back to doing some of the in-person courses. There’s a networking aspect that you can’t quite duplicate online.”

Continuing Legal Education Society

of British Columbia CEO Linda Russell

says the networking aspect of in-

person events can’t quite be duplicated

online • SUBMITTED