There are many ways to access learning opportunities at UBC, some of which are free, while others have an associated fee. You might be able to pay these fees with a tuition waiver or through UBC professional development funds:
Here is a selection of activities and learning sources that may be of interest to you. Please comment below if you know of other options at UBC that your colleagues might be interested in!
Workplace Learning Portal
The Workplace Learning Portal (WPL) is a central resource where staff can access many UBC-wide training and development courses from HR, Risk Management, Finance, and other portfolios. Visit the WPL regularly to find live, self-paced, and recorded options.
Here is a selection of free on-demand offerings that may be of interest:
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- Home Office Ergo: In this 1hr webinar, we will look at solutions and improvements you can make to your home office set-up including how common household items can be used for your home office ergonomics.
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- Self-Care 101: We don’t always take the time to care for and nurture ourselves and we sometimes require support in integrating relaxation and our personal needs into daily life. This self-guided course focuses on increasing mental health literacy through self-care for individuals. Participants will learn about the body’s stress response and how to identify these responses in themselves. They will have an opportunity to take a stress index, explore what self-care means to them and identify key UBC resources that can be engaged to support work life integration and positive mental health.
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- Understanding your UBC Benefits Plans: As a UBC employee you may be entitled to a number of benefits- and we realize that sometimes it can be challenging to comprehend what that means. By registering for this self-guided Canvas course, you will have access to an informative webinar on your UBC benefits plans as well as other helpful benefits resources.
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- Wellbeing in the Workplace: Now more than ever, wellbeing is playing a crucial role in both our work lives and personal lives. In order to work well, we have to be well and understanding the importance of wellbeing within the context of the workplace is a great place to start:
- Learn how wellbeing is valued and championed at UBC
- Be able to identify elements of the stress response cycle and how to support the self and others
- Learn a variety of self-care strategies that support wellbeing
- Feel confident in how to find, use and share UBC resources or services that support individual and workplace wellbeing
- Learn tools and skills to support wellbeing while working within changing environments (remote work, work from home, virtual work etc.)
- Wellbeing in the Workplace: Now more than ever, wellbeing is playing a crucial role in both our work lives and personal lives. In order to work well, we have to be well and understanding the importance of wellbeing within the context of the workplace is a great place to start:
If you have not yet completed the mandatory Workday training on WPL, now is the time! Soon emails will be sent out to anyone with incomplete training courses.
Enrolment Services Learning Centre
https://canvas.ubc.ca/enroll/GFKJD8
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- Performance Development Conversation Approach information, training and resources such as conversation guides, learning logs and other supporting documents
- Workday Resources for ES includes training for managers and staff, links to additional help for Workday , ES finance codes, and FAQs tailored for Enrolment Services staff
- Coming soon: ES Orientation
UBC Extended Learning
https://extendedlearning.ubc.ca/
Extended Learning courses have associated fees, but are eligible for tuition waivers.
I recently took the three week online Anti-Racism Strategies for the Workplace course, which I highly recommend. It’s a short, but intense course with emphasis on reflection, dialogue with your course facilitator and classmates, and putting strategies into action. It can be taken as a stand-alone course, or applied to the Anti-Racism, UBC Award of Achievement Program. If you are interested in taking it, please feel free to get in touch with me. I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Among the many courses and programs offered, Extended Learning recently added American Sign Language to their selection of language courses.
St. John’s College Hot Lunch
Each month, St. John’s College hosts a lunchtime speaker series. In pre-COVID days, we gathered to eat a catered, low cost, hot lunch together, but these days we’ve pivoted to a virtual (free) event.
One leader from across the UBC community is invited to speak each month. Previous speakers have included Professor Ono, Andrew Parr, and Kate Ross. At the start of the session, the guest speaker generally shares a bit about their personal and professional background as well as their current work and challenges.
Next, attendees are split into breakout rooms where they have the opportunity to meet and chat with colleagues from across the community to discuss topics brought up by the speaker, and generate additional questions for the speaker to address in the final 15 minutes of the lunch hour.
At time of posting, there were no details available about upcoming speakers, but I encourage you to view recordings of previous Hot Lunch speakers on YouTube.
M&P and CUPE 2950 staff: Did you know that AAPS funding is still available for the 2020/21 fiscal year? Submit your claims by March 5! Check your employee group info the HR website for updates on funding availability, eligibility and how to claim expenses.