Welcome to the NEW IEC Catalyst! As executive director of the Industry-Education Council, it is my pleasure to introduce you to this publication and to explain how we plan to use it. Like all newsletters, the purpose of the communiqué is to share knowledge. Our goal is to bridge an exchange of ideas between our education partners, our business
partners and the community. We envision this newsletter becoming a forum for information and discussion where you can voice your concern about current community issues and ultimately speak about the solutions. We hope to highlight innovation and innovative people and also to deal with the more difficult realities that businesses face today. Perhaps the most important thing for me to say is that we are your Industry-Education Council, and as such, we want this newsletter
and the IEC to be useful to you. To emphasize that, we have enlisted Minister Milloy to come to our Partnership Breakfast on April 30th to speak about his Ministry’s solution-oriented Second Career program. This is an Ontario government initiative designed to provide funding for people who are unemployed and want to re-educate themselves in order to begin the next phase of their career.
See WELCOME page 4
Partners in Education Breakfast Focused on Lifelong Learning “Rebound—the Next Great Adventure” Thursday April 30, 2009 Two exciting and timely speakers Career changes and lifelong learning go hand-in-hand on April 30th 7:30 am to 9:45 am ~ LIUNA Station
Inside this issue:
Careerapalooza
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Passport to Prosperity
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Apprenticesearch.com
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Co-op Education
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Careerapalooza cont.
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Hire Maturity
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Hire cont.
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Help Wanted
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Gen Y
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IEC Board of Directors
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IEC Sponsors
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Hon. John Milloy Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities Second Career provides career planning and financial support specially designed to help laid-off Ontarians participate in long-term training for a new job. Career counsellors in Employment Ontario offices across the province can help you take the first step.
Dr. Nancy Irwin Currently a practicing psychotherapist and clinical hypnotist, Dr. Irwin trained as an opera singer and was a professional stand-up comedian. Clearly no stranger to career changes and new adventures, Dr. Irwin motivates audiences to “Pull a 180!” by sharing stories from her book, YOU-TURN: Changing Direction in Midlife, 43 inspiring stories of real people over 40 who started down a new path.
BOOK NOW!! Discount Early Bird Tickets $40 per person or $350 for table of 10 until April 1st Call 905-529-4483 ext-226 to reserve your tickets. INDUSTRY-EDUCATION COUNCIL OF HAMILTON
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A hands-on career trade show for 15 to 30 year-olds March 10, 2009 ~ 10:00 am to 4:00 pm Hamilton Convention Centre As a Hamilton employer, you won’t want to miss out on the benefits of participating in this year’s Careerapalooza, a golden opportunity to showcase your organization and industry to thousands of Hamilton’s most creative, bright and enthusiastic young people. Careerapalooza, Hamilton’s premier hands-on career trade show for 15 to 30 year-olds, consistently draws more than 2,000 bright enthusiastic young people where they discover and learn more about leading Hamilton organizations.
Who is going to work for you in the next 10 years? In fact, this question may be keeping you up at night. Forward-thinking businesses are planning ahead to address their long-term human resource needs. So, the next questions are: “Do you have a long-term plan for attracting good, young talent to your business or industry?”
This year’s event – the fifth in the Careerapalooza series – has been renewed and refreshed. It promises more hands-on, dynamic, interactive displays, seminars, workshops and demonstrations than ever before. You’re invited to participate in several ways: • Stage a memorable, interactive, hands-on activity at a display booth, seminar or workshop. • Provide a dynamic animator for a show or demonstration on our main stage.
“Do you have a recruitment plan to address our changing workforce realities?” As you think about your answers, consider the following: More than 26,000 Ontario employers have added a tool to their toolbox to help them address their workforce challenges. They recognize that changing demographics, an aging and retiring workforce, booming labour markets in other regions and trends in education and training are impacting the availability of a skilled and educated workforce in the future. So what are they doing that you might not be? They’re engaging high school students in school-work
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Recruit candidates for casual, part-time or summer employment.
In whatever way you participate, you will: • Excite young people about your business and industry • Encourage them to learn more – by going to your website, blog, Facebook, You Tube site or Twitter • Be ready to hire the best and brightest for parttime or summer jobs. See Careerapalooza page 5
programs, while they’re still in school. By providing students with meaningful work experience opportunities, employers are helping to create a skilled workforce for the future – something that is critical not only for individual employers, but for our shared economic prosperity. Be part of this employer-led initiative – mentor, train and recruit youth today for your workforce tomorrow. To learn more about the Passport to Prosperity and how you can get involved, please call Beth Gibson at 905.529.4483 ext. 224 or visit www.employerregistry.ca
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Apprenticesearch.com is a FREE on -line service that matches employers and potential apprentices. The service operates in several regions of Southern Ontario, including Hamilton. Apprenticesearch.com helps to solve the persistent problem of skill shortages in our labour market. Thousands of skilled trades people will be retiring within the next five to ten years. This mass retirement will seriously impact Hamilton’s labour market productivity, growth and competitiveness at home and abroad. The apprenticesearch.com website services three audiences, job seekers, educators and employers. Job Seekers will benefit from: A guide outlining the Steps to an Apprenticeship
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Sample trades resumes Details of more than 140 skilled trades A list of available jobs Trade courses at local colleges
Educators will benefit from: • A guide on how to write a persuasive cover letter • Sample trade resumes
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Lesson plans for grade 10 career classes Interactive youth games
Apprenticesearch.com is maintained, updated and supported by experienced professionals. In Hamilton, jobs seekers, educators or employers can call Lorraine Baatz or Sharon Forster at 905-529-4483 for help to: • Fine tune resumes
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Register on apprenticesearch.com Solve problems or answer questions.
Employers will benefit from: • An employer registry to post their jobs • Details of tax credits and wage subsidies • Tips on how to retain apprentices
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Cooperative Education Feature Hi my name is Nick. I am 17 years old. Within the next 10 years, I might be working with you.
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Want to know how you can prepare me now? If asked to take on a co-op student, you shouldn’t have a second thought! By taking on a co-op student you: • Can give a student a chance to learn from the best. • Can train, teach and share your knowledge of your industry to our future workforce
While you are working with students, you can give them hints and tips on how to do the job faster, more accurately, and more effectively.
Get free labor Are training potential future employees.
You will give them a better understanding of the work force, as well as great experience and knowledge.
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While we are working with you, we receive real hands on training rather than just theory. Let co-op students help you, by helping them! Nick, Marketing Assistant IEC co-op student
Through apprenticesearch.com, we have found several apprentices. Casey, the young lady in the photo, has proven to be an excellent worker and has almost completed her apprenticeship papers. We are very satisfied with the attentive service apprenticesearch.com has provided whenever we have had job postings and will continue to use this excellent free service. Phil Silvestri, Controltech Electrical
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Careerapalooza….continued To get your creative juices flowing, here’s what select organizations will be doing at this year’s Careerapalooza:
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A construction association will demonstrate the construction process from design to building A trade school will be giving a cooking demonstration A civil engineer company show a grader simulator in action A multi-media company will demonstrate a green screen and video equipment
To register or learn more please call 905-529-4483 x-226
Welcome….continued
To provide additional support, we have also engaged psychologist Dr. Nancy Irwin to inspire hope with her common-sense solutions to the practical and emotional struggles faced by those who find themselves out of work. She is the author of “YouTurn”, an inspirational book about people who have changed careers in mid-life… some out of necessity and some by choice… only to find that a whole new world awaits. We hope that the combination of these two speakers will provide you with some basic tools to help your staff. Beyond the Breakfast, we are working to connect business with our local schools. Experiential learning is foremost in education today which means your company can play a big role in helping to mentor our young
people. If you are interested in a taking on a co-op student; if you are willing to share your career experience; or if you have spaces in your employee volunteerism program, we need to hear from you. Equally exciting, over the next year, we will be working to partner businesses with schools which we believe will be a win-win for all involved. Partnership between a business and a school could mean tutoring; finding used clothing; playing basketball; coaching; or running a food drive. That relationship will be up to the business and the school to work out but the possibilities are unlimited. It is the goal of IEC to simply help, hence, the name Catalyst. Mia Wilkinson mia.wilkinson@iechamilton.ca
Hire maturity – tap into a wealth of experience As an owner-manager, are you finding it tougher to recruit and hire people with the experience, skills and talents you need to expand your business? If you answered, “yes” you’re not alone. Research by the Hamilton Training Advisory Board in 2007 found that 80 per cent of Hamilton employers felt it will become harder to recruit skilled employees over the next three years. Small business employers said that recruiting and retaining skilled workers is their top priority. So where will you find the skilled and talented people you need to grow your business? The experts agree that one key
group you should consider is mature workers, those aged 45plus. Mature workers have a wealth of experience you can tap into. They’re bright, talented and motivated. Workers aged 45-plus are often more dedicated, disciplined, reliable and loyal than younger recruits. Most are eager to apply their proven problemsolving abilities and to mentor younger team members. As the hiring manager, why might you not be seeing and interviewing mature workers? It could boil down to someone in recruiting, HR or management excluding them from the interview list. That person might believe a
mature worker would want more money than the job pays, overburden your benefit plan, get hurt or jump ship. Someone in your hiring chain might think that a worker aged 45-plus will be inflexible, be unable to do the physical work, be sick more often, be resistant to learning new skills or be unable to get along with younger people. For the most part, these are largely myths and the facts have proven otherwise. How can you ensure that the most highly qualified and accomplished candidates, those who have the skills, talent and experience to do the job, will be on your interview list? See Hire page 5
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Hire….continued Most importantly, insist that everyone in your hiring chain put forward the best candidates regardless of age. You may want to reinforce this policy by putting it in writing. You could also have an aged-45 plus member of your management team, and who is closely attuned to your business strategy, skim through all the resumes received. This second review would ensure that the often younger HR person or recruiter hasn’t passed over any highly qualified and accomplished applicants. It would also help HR and the recruiter to better understand the qualities that senior management is seeking in a candidate.
And last, but hardly least, you may want to put plans and programs in place to keep your mature workers happy and productive – so they’ll stay with you a long time. But that’s the subject of another article. Think about it. Increasingly, mature workers will become essential to your business success. As your team members age, and as fewer younger workers become available, mature workers will make up a larger part of your team. Their wealth of experience, skills and talents will become even more important to your ongoing business success. ____________ This article includes extracts from the Rebound Summary Report.
one year (to March 2009) community consultation and research study to discover and report how local stakeholders – the community overall, employment assistance providers, employers, government, associations and unemployed mature workers - can do an even better job to help Hamilton’s mature workers aged 45-plus to re-enter the workforce. To learn more about Rebound, please contact project manager Paul Muller at 905-529-4483, or visit iechamilton.ca and explore the Rebound page under the “Workforce Development” tab. Rebound is an Employment Ontario project funded by the Government of Ontario.
Rebound: Mature workers back in action is a
Where the jobs are during this recession On Friday, January 15, 2009, CBC’s The National featured a 15-minute segment entitled, “Help Wanted.” The experts said the following sectors are largely recession-resilient and are still hiring.
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Electrical power generation and distribution – we still need to power our homes and businesses Health care -- especially for seniors, as the baby boomers age, Needed: doctors, nurses, lab technicians, and information technology experts. Education – mainly for adults and seniors Police and emergency services The food industry – even in recessions, we still have to eat Repair industry – anyone who fixes big-ticket items (e.g. houses, cars, appliances, electronics). In downturns, people repair instead of buy new. Public sector/government – As baby boomers retire, there will be strong growth at the federal, provincial and municipal levels. This is the only sector that gained jobs during 2008. Information technology – has seen job growth since the 2000 dot.com bust. Environmental/green jobs Accounting – organizations still need to count the dollars and report to owners and investors. Skilled trades
One expert advised that if you’re in school, stay there. Get more education and become even more highly skilled. He said the skills shortage is ongoing and will again be a key issue when times get better. The expert said that when the skills shortage again becomes top priority, we should be ready to fill those jobs with highly educated and skilled Canadians.
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The Gen Y “Attitude of Entitlement”: The Causes, Impact and Solution You might be thinking – "Did I read that correctly? You mean there is a "solution" to fix these entitled & spoiled Generation Y's"? Unfortunately, that is a popular comment I hear privately from managers who work with Gen Y's. Many view them as the spoiled generation who expect to be VP next month, who make demands about what they want and have "ridiculous, unrealistic expectations". I think the truly sad part about this is that too few people outside of this generation really "get" them, and as a result many Gen Y's are grossly misunderstood, leading to unnecessary generational clashes at work. The Contributors / Cause Gen Y's were raised in what I call the "Era of Overindulgence" or "Era of Instant Gratification" (I did my doctoral dissertation on this topic so summarizing it in just 700 words is a challenge). This was an era of well intentioned parents (often Baby Boomers) micromanaging their children, telling them what to do and what not to do, and usually rescuing them from experiencing the consequences of their mistakes. In a word, these parents were "over-functioning" (a type of over-indulgence). Unfortunately, what most of these parents didn't realize is that the more they over-functioned, it actually encouraged children to under-function and it bred an attitude of entitlement. Basically, it meant these children grew up expecting this sort of treatment from everyone, and they came to believe it was something they were entitled to, rather than viewing it as a privilege or being undeserved. Add to this mix the fact that during this time parents were being encouraged to "praise your kids" and "build their self-esteem"– both of which are great ideas. The problem is that although praise is extremely important, so is giving constructive feedback. If parents only ever give praise, children never learn how to properly deal with feedback (a struggle for many Gen Y's). At the same time, marketers were starting to realize just how much purchasing power Gen Y's had, and they were told to "Buy now, pay later" (like the rest of us) and the Internet arrived – all variables that reinforced instant gratification. Overall, as a culture we overindulged them and made things too easy, and it's important that our generations claim responsibility in this. The Impact The consequences of this shift have been many and significant. I was the keynote speaker at a large conference recently and after I spoke for 2 hours on this subject, I had a panel of 12 Gen Y's come on stage with me to confirm whether what I was saying was accurate. They all agreed that behind their "masks" they feel enormous insecurity and anxiety, find it extremely difficult to hear any negative feedback and struggle to make decisions. I think their honesty was shocking and a massive eye-opener to the 150 managers in the room who previously may have just viewed them as being spoiled. The Solution So what can managers do specifically about the attitude of entitlement? Here are 3 tips: 1.
2.
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Seek to Understand & Learn from Them It's easy to blame and point fingers, yet the reality is as I described it earlier – as a culture we have taught them this way! My challenge is for all of us to look inward, not outward. Instead of blaming them we need to be asking a few questions: What can I learn from Gen Y? What can they learn from us? Simply changing our perception towards them will radically change how we communicate to them and how they communicate back to us. Praise & Challenge Them With Respect (Both are Important) There is power in praise but only if it's authentic, honest and specific (if it's not, don't bother). It's also important to challenge them (remember they do love to learn) but your tone is essential. As long as managers challenge in a tone of respect, they not only will be more open to hear it but will want to please you. Throw Assumptions Out the Window & Be Clear About Your Expectations Gen Y's often grew up having other people rescue them from consequences, so having boundaries may be new to them. Some expectations that you think should be "so obvious" to them, are not. Again in a tone of respect, be clear about your expectations, what you need from them, what rewards they can expect to receive for work well done, and also the consequences they will face if job expectations are not met.
Remember, the goal here is not just to reveal the truth about Gen Y's, or even to "fix them", but to better understand them so that as a manager you can help them achieve all they are capable of. © 2005 Dr. Karyn Gordon www.drkaryn.com
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IEC Board of Directors BOARD EXECUTIVE Marcel Castura, Director, Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board
Nancy Di Gregorio, Superintendent, Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board
Cheryl Jensen, VP, Technology, Apprenticeship and Corporate Training, Mohawk College of Applied Arts and Technology
Diane Dent, Professor, Faculty of French, Redeemer University College
Tim McCabe, General Manager, Planning and Economic Development, City of Hamilton
Lloyd Ferguson, Ward 12 City Councillor, City of Hamilton
Beryl Roberto, Retired President and CEO, Teachers Credit Union Pat Rocco, Superintendent, Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board Mark Zega, Barrister and Solicitor, Evans, Philp
Art Heidebrecht, Executive Director, Bachelor of Technology Program, McMaster University Lily Lumsden, General Manager, YMCA Career Development and Learning Rick McClure, Training Manager, US Steel Canada Ron Rambarran, Vice Principal, Columbia International College Angelo Ricci, Manager, Bank of Montreal
DIRECTORS Ron Bailey, Team Leader Human Resources, Professional Development, ArcelorMittal Dofasco Shawn Chamberlin, President, Light Computer Centre
Chris Spence, Director of Education, Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board Louise Taylor Green, Vice President, Human Resources and Organization Development, Hamilton Health Sciences
Special thanks to our valuable sponsors: ArcelorMittal Dofasco Inc. CHML Radio City of Hamilton Columbia International College Employment Ontario Hamilton Community Foundation Hamilton Spectator Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board
Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board Mohawk College of Applied Arts and Technology Ontario Ministry of Education Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Ontario Trillium Foundation Redeemer University College Service Canada Teachers Credit Union
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