75th ARC - Training and Education Committee (TEC) Report

May 26-27, 2018

The TEC committee’s mandate is to provide strategic advice and guidance to regional executives on regional training topics. The committee includes a chair; six regional training committee chairs; a PIPSC Education Officer and manager; and a staff resource. 

The TEC Committee held 5 in-person committee meetings:

• July 7, 2017
• September 11, 2017
• November 6, 2017
• December 4, 2017
• February 23, 2018

This year our key priority was education reform. At our first meeting we concurred that the guiding principles for the education reform would include: accountability-learning must serve a purpose; empowerment-members are stakeholders in their learning; Inclusivity, and flexibility-learning via a variety of methods; and evergreen-is responsive to diverse and emerging needs.

We reviewed and fine tuned the education reform presentation, Evolving to Meet Needs, that would be presented to the Board of Directors for approval in August. During this review we discussed the results of the education survey which supported that members wanted a training program that was accessible via a variety of method, supported mentorship, and allowed members to chose what training would best suit their steward learning path. We discussed the steward role document and noted once the reform was approved we would adjust both the Steward and Training Policies. At each Regional Steward Council, we agreed that a steward self identification document would be distributed allowing stewards to identify the level that best represented their current steward role and the role/s to which they aspire.

At our second meeting we discussed the feedback received on the Evolving to Meet Needs presentations from each regional Steward Council. The feedback was mostly positive except for the use of levels and some felt it was too early in the process to self identify. The committee agreed to revisit the steward level terminology and worked together to rebrand. It was interesting to note that the self identification cards mirrored the survey results noting steward’s areas of interest included: consultation; co-facilitation; mobilization; negotiations; and OSH. These findings can be used to support the development of new training modules. In response to the feedback on the self-identification cards, the card was rebranded; this included renaming the card, “Expression of Interest Form” and moving the focus to themes, training and specializations. It was agreed this form change would mitigate concerns regarding the levels, which were viewed as hierarchical, and emphasized themed training. We agreed to make the cards available at the AGM and review feedback at our December meeting.  We concluded our second meeting by participating in an Education Reform Video that would be presented at the AGM.

Over the next meetings we continued to review feedback received on the new model and forms. We reviewed the training and steward policies and continued to adjust to support the new model. This work will continue this work into the next year.

Other tasks addressed in our meetings included:

1. Training needs for separate employers - each member was tasked to lobby their region to determine the what gaps existed in our training courses for separate employer;
2. Pensions Series Lunch and Learns - discussed developing a bank of regional trainers to deliver these presentations, which is in keeping with the mandate of the new education model;
3. Developing a standard process to address special learning requests;
4. Redesigning the steward renewal process;
5. Reviewing course content housed by PIPSC and outside organizations that could be adapted to support the new model.

These activities will continue in the upcoming year.

It has been a busy and exciting year for the TEC members; we have accomplished a lot in the past 12 months and we look forward to the release of the new education model in the future.

In Solidarity,

Carolyn Hynes

Atlantic Region TEC representative