If you’ve ever done hands-on training for a skill or career, you’ll know how valuable that style of education is to career development and placement.
Working in an environment that helps you learn while gaining workplace experience is one of the best ways to solidify a specific skill set, says Pauline Stevenson, president and founder of Excel Career College.
The Courtenay-based school has for 30 years honed its own skills in matching employers with high-quality potential employees, not only in their diploma programs, but through their industry partnerships, like the Industry Training Authority (ITA), Employer driven training projects, Government labour market initiatives and other innovated approaches to connecting the right people to the right jobs.
“We’re part of the business community, and the culture of the college speaks to our fundamental philosophy, which is to connect people to employers,” Stevenson says.
Fostering connections to business community
As a newly named Ambassador for the Women’s Enterprise Centre of B.C., Stevenson stays in touch with the business community in a variety of sectors. It’s one of the ways the college keeps its network vibrant and maintains and grows its connections with employers, she says. Being a member of the Vancouver Island Economic Alliance and industry associations is another, she adds. “We’re very involved in economic development.”
Mobile training a specialty
For those situations where onsite training for specific jobs makes more sense than sending people into a classroom, Excel Career College instructors go where you need them to be. Whether it’s teaching aquaculture to new fish farm employees on the North Island, or training people in factory-framed building techniques on the Malahat Nation, Excel instructors bring project-specific training to employers and other clients.
“For us, being innovative and responsive is kind of second nature, it’s how we’ve always operated,” Stevenson says. Over the next two years, the college has instructors doing specific training for government and industry in 20 different locations around B.C., from Prince Rupert to Powell River to Victoria and points in between.
Pilot project moving forward
The college is working on a new initiative called the Integrated Learning Career Launcher. It’s designed for young learners to supplement their studies with work experience and will be of interest to people looking to explore a variety of work settings, all while earning an income, Stevenson says.
The college partners with employers by providing staff, often for specific short-term projects, and the cost of training is built into the student’s experience. “The aim is to support employers where crises happen around HR,” she says, while supporting this new talent pool in generating a career on their own terms.
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If you’re looking to train for a certain career or want to find out where to look for job openings, you’ll find plenty of information at excelcareercollege.com, or you can call to speak to a representative at 250-334-2452, or send an email to info@excelcareercollege.com. You can also follow what’s new on Excel’s Facebook, Instagram or Twitter pages.
