APSA staff believe that honing our skills helps all of our members. We are committed to learn, grow and be at the top of our game in our professional fields. Here's a short list of recent staff education and learning:
Psychological First Aid: On February 2nd, Andrew Boden and Lakshmi Gosyne completed their Psychological First Aid certification. This training teaches the skills and understanding to administer psychological First Aid in any kind of trauma or stressful situation. Angela Vass will be completing her Psychological First Aid in May. If you would like to become certified in Psychological First Aid, you can sign up for this all day workshop on May 8th, 2019.
UX Design Certificate: On March 19th, Lakshmi completed her 10-week UX Design Course at Brainstation. Lakshmi's new skills include how to organize content based on APSA members' unique goals and needs. When developing any new online tools, websites and apps, Lakshmi can now lead the APSA Board how best to serve APSA members.
Lancaster House Audio Conference: Angela Vass participated in an audio conference titled: When does the law impose a duty to inquire about disability? This conference covered the duty of fair representation and under what circumstances disclosure of a mental health issue becomes discriminatory in the workplace. This gives Angela the latest information about accommodation law and when to disclose any mental health issues to your employer.
Executive Director 101: Andrew Boden attended a conference through Vantage Point on March 21st. It's learning objectives included:
- Gain a broad knowledge of the technical requirements and competencies of the not-for-profit executive director role
- Learn best practices in leadership and human resources, mission impact, governance, and operations
- Create strategic goals to support your success as a first-time executive director
The Progressive Discipline Seminar for Supervisors and Union Stewards: Andrew Boden attended a conference on March 28th on the fundamentals of progressive discipline and how this works in a variety of situations in the workplace. This will give Andrew the tools to help APSA members with any progressive discipline issues at SFU.
Upcoming Training
Accommodation Law Conference: Angela will be attending a two-day Accommodation Law conference to continue to expand her knowledge of accommodation law and to learn the newest decisions and best practices in this field.