When Tilo McAllister found himself working in B2B (business-to-business) marketing, he knew he would need to hone a very specific set of skills. So when it was announced that SCS instructor Tyler Calder, who McAllister had already taken Search Engine Marketing with, would be teaching a new B2B Marketing course, the next step in his learning journey was clear.

“A lot of the marketing courses out there are catering to B2C (business to consumer) and B2B and all this different stuff, trying to be everything at once, and I liked that this course was very focused,” he explains.

Currently the national sales and marketing manager for T&T Power Group, McAllister says his background was in sales, but he was always drawn to the storytelling aspect of marketing.

“While I do love the one to one nature of sales, I really like being able to influence the overall communication strategy of the company and the messaging that we put out to our audience and the entire marketplace,” he elaborates.

The knowledge and skills McAlister picked up in his B2B Marketing: Fueling Revenue Growth classes were instantly applicable to his work.

“All of the assignments and practical work exercises that we did, I just did on my current business. So I was able to develop content and strategies that I'm using right now,” he says.

“I would go to class on Tuesday night and on Wednesday morning I'd be trying to implement something that I learned, so that was really cool.”

McAllister says one of the most valuable lessons he learned in class was about taking a coordinated approach to marketing and sales strategy.

“They are truly integrated at this point,” he says. “They don't exist in a silo. They really have to be united and coordinated in their strategy and I think that was kind of one of Tyler’s major messages throughout the course.”

Calder’s advice was particularly valuable to McAllister because he speaks from up-tp-date professional experience in both sales and marketing management. McAllister says he also found himself pleasantly surprised at the level of engagement Calder was able to encourage through his welcoming and informal online teaching approach. 

“I've done a number of online courses and it's just a ghost land of blank profile pictures and it seems like the poor instructor is just talking to nobody,” he explains.

“I've never been in a course with that many people who are just comfortable to be on camera for the entire thing. And because of that I really feel like I connected with the other people in the class a lot more. It was really nice.”

In addition to enjoying Calder’s teaching style, McAllister says the course content was appropriately challenging, while also being applicable to his work right away, and that he got a lot out of participating in the course live.

“The discussions that would come up were really good. I liked having the opportunity and the invitation to actually participate in a bit of a dialogue, not just one way content,” he shares. 

“Every week there was a good question that led to a little bit of debate and it would often be a question he would ask at the start where everyone would chime in and give their opinion and then he would share his. That was that was a fun learning process.”

Asked who he would recommend the course to, McAllister says it's fantastic for people who are maybe new to marketing or new to B2B because it covers excellent foundational knowledge. 

“I'd say the group that I was with were all either kind of new to marketing or new to B2B or some of them just were maybe feeling a little stale after being in marketing for a long time and maybe not being so versed in newer up-to-date practices, specifically in digital marketing,” he adds.

For himself, McAllister says the course has helped him gain newfound confidence in his own skills and abilities.

“In my case, I took it on because I have the sales background that I have a lot of industry knowledge now but I felt like I was kind of missing a real chunk of foundational knowledge. We've been having great wins and success with our marketing, but I thought, you know, if I actually knew what to do, this would be easier,” he laughs.

“I think having some formal education empowers you to defend your ideas a little bit better and stick up for yourself in the discourse of business strategy and give a reasoning behind your gut feelings.”

For anyone thinking about taking B2B Marketing: Fueling Revenue Growth, McAllister’s advice is simple: “Just do it,”  he says. “But maybe more so, expect to enjoy it. I look forward to Tuesday night's lecture, like I look forward to like dropping volleyball on Thursdays.”

Records disposal manager Cori Cirolia knew she wanted to become a part of the Institute of Certified Records Managers, but found herself at an impasse.

“I was struggling to understand the prep exam coursework and they suggested that I attend the U of T School of Continuing Studies Records and Information program School of Continuing Studies Records and Information program to assist with understanding the information and to also be able to join after the successful completion of the courses,” she explains.

Cirolia works at a police department in the US as a Records Disposal Manager & FOIA Manager, where she is responsible for implementing a department-wide retention schedule, maintaining the department’s paper records storage room, completing digital records disposal certificates, and working with the IT department to ensure her department is compliant with all state mandates. She also works alongside the department’s Information Services to ensure all FOIA requests are received and processed according to the law.

“I like keeping things organized and on a system. I also like helping the police department maintain their integrity and fostering open communication with the public,” she says.

The coursework in the SCS Records and Information Management certificate encouraged Cirolia to understand records management from a more ”big picture” perspective with regards to how integral it is to work with everyone in the department to ensure efficiency and effectiveness when it comes to the retention of public documents in a government building.

Cirolia says the instructor who taught Records & Information Management Strategies gave learners the choice of personalizing all assignments so they could essentially be a practice run for their real work.

“It really was so helpful with understanding the content when I was able to bring the assignment to my work environment,” she says.

“The instructor even took the time to approve rough drafts and provided much needed suggestions, etc. I really learned a lot and I felt so much more comfortable when we finally presented our assignment.”

The school’s user-friendly learning platform, and engaged instructors who replied to questions regularly and in a timely fashion and really took the time to explain things thoroughly, fostered a welcoming learning environment, says Cirolia. Her biggest challenge was balancing her work, home life, and studying.

“I found that working fulltime and being a mother of three children has all of its own demands,” she explains, “but the information that was provided for reading and class preparation was excellent and was able to be completed on our time so that when we had to attend a scheduled live discussions, the class presentations were very organized, detailed enough to get the points across, and all professors stayed within their timeframe so I was able to still get all family and work obligations completed without too much stress.”

This month SCS marketing instructor Alison Garwood-Jones launched “I Miss My Mommy”, a graphic novel for orphaned adults. 

Following the back-to-back losses of her parents in 2011 and 2012, Garwood-Jones originally started working on the drawings that would eventually fill her book as a way for her to process her own experience. 

“For a long time I focused on writing as my main art, largely because I was earning a living as a magazine feature writer, but after my parents passed, I picked up my pen again. Drawing, for me, and I think for all people, is an easy way into different kinds of emotions,” she says.

At the time, Garwood-Jones wasn’t ready to deal with big emotions, and found the idea of processing them through large-scale art, whether it be large, intimidating paintings, or epic orchestral music, didn’t work for her. 

“That’s how some big pieces of art made me feel during the height of the grief, is remoteness, like big orchestral numbers, I can't listen to Wagner or even Mozart when I'm grieving, that's too big, I need to go small. I've always loved the expression ‘think small’.  We live in a culture that's very ‘go big or go home’, and I think when it comes to tough topics, thinking small is actually more powerful, because it gives people a way into something tough through something manageable,“ she explains.

“I found that spot illustrations, which is what this book relies on, were an effective way for me to process my own emotions.”

When Garwood-Jones shared those illustrations on social media she found that other people dealing with grief could instantly relate and connect emotionally to what the illustrations represented. For example, one illustration simply features a pile of boxes. 

“I thought, Gen Xers who've lost their parents, same with Baby Boomers, are going to understand boxes, because on these boxes, you're going to have labels like kitchen supplies, books, office supplies, this is all the stuff that's left behind after a life,” she says. 

“Part of grief is dealing with the admin tasks, with the storage units, and if I can show those responsibilities that the kids take on afterwards, just through a drawing of a pile of boxes, then maybe I can connect with people on a level that makes them feel seen, or maybe sometimes just gives them a bit of a chuckle. I don't know if I achieved it but I'm going for, not just comfort and compassion, but a little comic relief maybe.”

Garwood-Jones says these days she looks at grief as two things. “It’s dealing first with absence, like, ‘oh, my God, mom and dad are gone, they're never coming back’. And then it's dealing with presence. And the rest of your life, you're dealing with their presence,” she explains.

“For some people, that's an inspiration, because it carries you forward, the lessons they taught you, and what they showed you in terms of how they were resilient in life and how they handled challenges. If they did it in a way that was level -headed and strong, that is a gift that keeps on giving. So somehow in the aftermath of death, you're left with inspiration, if you're lucky. But a lot of people are left just feeling plain injured. You know, and because their parents, for whatever reason, again, couldn't be the parents they needed. Some people are not meant to be parents, but they still have kids, and it leaves behind a lot of injured souls. So I wanted my book to show that as well. There's a lot of walking wounded out there.”

Marketing a book on grief is a particularly delicate operation, and Garwood-Jones says that while of course she hopes the book will reach people it might help, she wants to connect with her audience in a way that feels authentic. 

“I'm part of that generation of writers now, and it's picking up steam big time, who wants to bypass Amazon, and sell directly to my readers. We live in an age where you can bypass the middlemen and the middlewomen. We've seen that in music with Taylor Swift and Beyonce. And I think writers are catching on now that there's a lot of technology out there, from a content platform point of view, from an e-commerce point of view, from a distribution point of view, that we can handle this on our own,” she says. 

“It's a steep learning curve. But I mean, legacy media is burning, and there are other ways. From burnt earth, there comes little green shoots. And I think one of the green shoots that is growing right now is this growing awareness from authors, by authors, that I can have this direct relationship with my audience and I can grow that. It's not the route to go if you want to be rich and famous. But if you care about your topic, and you care about what your audience would need from you in terms of your topic, you can grow something on a very sort of one-on-one basis slowly. It's a marathon, not a sprint.”

Garwood-Jones says it all makes for the perfect case study she can take back to her SCS classes. 

“Right now is a very, very interesting time to be putting something new out onto the internet because the internet is a mess right now. It's scrambled eggs, and part of the reason it's scrambled eggs is that it's been flooded with AI-generated content. There's a ton of synthetic content out there that's been trained on content by humans,” she says. 

“So the question is how do I rise above the noise and create something unique with a new point of view and a unique voice and a more compelling approach to a particular topic. This is where I've got to test things out. I can take this back to class and say, ‘okay, when I went really super long tail on the topic of grief, did that help with my ranking in terms of, not being necessarily an expert, but being someone who is joining the conversation online about grief?’”

Another thing Garwood-Jones says she will take back to her class is that she is taking a very one-on-one approach to marketing such a personal book. “I actually do want to have a meaningful one-on-one connection with every single person that purchases from me and sends me a note,” she says. 

“So I'm writing handwritten notes, sending them back a thank you with a custom bookmark for their book. I do that because I want them to feel good, but being kind makes me feel good. One of the best remedies for when you're feeling depressed or sad or stuck is to help somebody else. Do something nice for somebody else,” she says. 

“I know that that doesn't work for clinical depression and I'm not an expert at all, but for when we've got the blues or the mean reds, as Audrey Hepburn used to like to say, doing something kind for somebody else and connecting with them can really help.”

Alison Garwood-Jones is a Toronto-based author, illustrator, and podcast host. She started her career as an art historian working at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Musée d'Orsay in Paris and The Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery and went on to become a magazine editor (Elle) and feature writer with a focus on culture, technology, and health. 

She currently teaches: Foundations of Digital Communications Strategy and Social Media; Digital Communications Strategy: Defining Your Business Objective; Digital Communications Strategy: Content Marketing and Distribution; and Writing Digital Content. 
 

After fifteen years as an elected official, Michelle Mungall was ready to try something new. She discovered the Creative Writing program at SCS, and after honing her skills with us, will now be featured as a regular opinion contributor for the Vancouver Sun.

Mungall developed a passion for politics early in life.

“I fell in love with politics as a six year-old girl in pigtails listening to the grown-ups in my family talk about Brian Mulroney and the 1984 election. Something about the whole conversation and idea of voting hooked me instantly,” she explains.

“About the same time, I discovered I was an ardent feminist when a neighbourhood boy pushed me off the snowbank to declare he was the king of the castle and I was to clean up after the dirty rascals.”

That passion followed her into adulthood, where Mungall was determined to blaze many trails for women in politics, which included being the first Member of the Legislative Assembly to bring her baby into British Columbia’s Legislative House.

While she had always enjoyed writing, Mungall says she never thought of herself as a writer.

“It was just something I did, and wanted to do well, as part of my other responsibilities,” she says.  

“When I retired from public life, though, I wanted to do something more creative, and found myself buying a new laptop and signing up for the creative writing certificate program.”

Mungall says she will certainly be able to apply what she learned through the program in her pieces for The Sun, as well as a memoir she has in the works.

“My writing has leveled-up more than I could have imagined. I’m a way better storyteller now,” she says.

“I really started to think about the voice and tone I use when telling a story. As a politician, there’s always an element of distance when communicating with your audience, even when being as open as you possibly can. That was deeply ingrained in me, and my instructors and classmates really forced me to look at this over and over again, challenging me to let readers into the story more deeply. I can still hear them and am rewriting sentences all the time with this in mind.”

As a working parent to young children, Mungall says one of the challenges of writing is simply finding the time to do it, and that getting her memoirs down on paper is its own particular hurdle.

“Accessing memories for a memoir is tricky, especially when you’re a tired mom of toddlers. I mean, it’s a win to remember to turn on the dishwasher,” she says.

“My instructors had excellent ways to dig into my own mental files for great stories.”

Mungall has kept in touch with those SCS instructors who have helped her along in her learning and writing journey. “It’s something special when you find people who are genuinely interested in supporting your success,” she says.

Getting feedback from her fellow students in class was also incredibly valuable, says Mungall.

“It was like a testing ground for ideas on how to tell a story and make a piece even better.”

Her advice to anyone considering taking an SCS creative writing course or certificates is simple:

“Dive in and soak up as much as you can.”

Mungall’s opinion contributions  on everything from workplace issues for politicians or minimum wage workers, to energy transition, to human rights, housing, childcare, healthcare and parking will be featured in the Vancouver Sun beginning this spring. She hopes to tackle hot topics in a thought-provoking way that gets conversations going.

Hospital administrator Haleh Rahimi only had a basic understanding of what project management entailed when she started her first course at the School of Continuing Studies (SCS) just a couple of years ago. Now she has successfully completed the notoriously challenging Project Management Professional (PMP) exam. 

While her natural affinity for project management was evident to her colleagues at Mount Sinai even before she began studying the subject, Rahimi credits her SCS Project Management certificate courses, and in particular the PMI® Authorized PMP® Exam Prep course, and instructor Peter Monkhouse with her success in earning her official PMP designation from the Project Management Institute. 

“This course is so worth it,” she says. “It’s a professor-taught course where you are led through the modules and the exam application process, and like the other SCS project management courses, the modules are recorded so you can go back and review them at your convenience.”

Despite hearing how challenging the exam could be from friends and colleagues who had attempted it in the past, after taking the course and following Monkhouse’s advice, Rahimi says she felt ready to tackle it. 

“I’ve heard roughly 30% of people who write it actually pass the exam. It’s very panic-inducing when you hear that but I had so much confidence that I wouldn’t have had trying to achieve this without the guidance Peter offered. He even looked over my resumé before I sent in my application,” she explains. 

“It feels like I had a one-on-one personal trainer for passing the PMP.”

The SCS PMP prep course includes over 3000 up-to-date practice questions and 6 simulated PMP® practice exams, which learners have access to for 12 months. 

When she submitted her exam, Rahimi says she felt confident. “I hadn’t run out of time, and the questions had been so familiar after doing the prep course mock exams. It was tricky but I knew how to apply the knowledge. So by the end, I just wanted to go lie down on my bed and do nothing for the rest of the day, but I felt good, she laughs.”

PMP hopefuls have the option to write online or in person, and Rahimi says that in addition to walking them through the application process, Monkhouse even gave her and her classmates advice on which option would suit their individual needs. “I wrote it in person at a test centre, and they give you your results on the spot. It’s very scary, but Peter had prepared us with advice on everything from what to expect on your 10-minute break to what kind of snacks to bring, so there were no stressful surprises,” she says. 

“He even goes above and beyond and keeps a schedule of which of his students are writing when and he texted me in the morning to say good luck and to remind me that it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I didn’t pass the first time.”

Rahimi says she was thrilled to find that she had indeed passed. With just over a minute per question, her main concern in writing the exam was time management. “But Peter had taught us how to read the questions efficiently,” she explains. 

“He told us not to write the exam until we were getting a particular percentage on the mock exam, without running out of time, and only when you can do that, are you ready to attempt the real thing.” 

Rahimi’s first call after getting her passing result was to her father, a project management engineer. “He couldn’t believe it because he knows how hard the exam is. He has even had workers who were offered raises if they would go and get their PMP designation and they couldn’t do it.”

Rahimi plans to put her new certification to good use. “I love my job but I’m ready for a new challenge,” she says. “I knew I could have started applying for full-time roles after I completed my first three SCS courses, but when you do a little bit of research, everyone is talking about the PMP,” she says. 

“Every time you see a project management-related job posting, it says the PMP designation will be a great asset to your application.” 

Rahimi is now hoping to find a permanent project management role. She feels confident that by adding the PMP designation to her previous education and experience, she is now well-positioned to find her dream PM role within healthcare. 

Given her experience, Rahimi says that her first piece of advice for anyone else hoping to pass the PMP exam is to take the PMI® Authorized PMP® Exam Prep course at SCS. “I kept in touch with a few people from my certificate courses and we checked in with each other after a few months to ask if anyone had done the PMP exam, and most of them had tried and failed,” she shares. 

“The only one who had passed was a guy who had taken the SCS PMP prep course.”

“The only other advice I would give to anyone wanting to take the PMP exam would be that when the instructor tells you that you need to practice, take it seriously, because sitting down for four hours and answering practical questions is something you really need to prepare for,” Rahimi says.

It's a very tough exam, she emphasizes. “It would be so tough to do on your own, I would almost use the word impossible, but I feel like if you take the PMP prep course, follow the instructor’s guidance exactly, and commit to those invaluable mock exams, you will be successful.”

Networking can be a powerful tool for career advancement. It can help you build your confidence, exchange ideas, and provide pathways to new opportunities. Networking expert and SCS instructor Jean Chow shares three tips for networking in multicultural settings. 

1. Consider The Platinum Rule vs The Golden Rule

Most people know The Golden Rule – Treat others how you want to be treated. Yet it’s not always the best way to approach people. You only know how you want to be treated, your background, your cultural upbringing, your standards.

The Platinum Rule is an important shift in perspective which challenges you to treat others how they want to be treated.

So how do we know how they want to be treated? Applying the Platinum Rule involves understanding and respecting the unique preferences of individuals in various contexts, (including cultural context), developing meaningful relationships, and offering helpful collaboration.

2. Humility helps

Don’t think you’re the smartest person in the room. Listen more. Have a beginner’s mindset. In Japanese, the word “shoshin” means “beginner’s mind.” You may find it refreshing and freeing when you learn to let go of your preconceptions and have an attitude of openness when learning

3. Be culturally curious and sensitive

Do you work on a multicultural team and/or work for a multinational company? Often, the answer is “Yes!” Look around. In our professional and personal lives, we may all speak the same language but this doesn’t necessarily translate into engagement and collaboration. Communication is not so straightforward. English is widely spoken in the following countries: Canada, U.S., U.K., Ghana, and Australia, and yet our cultures are different.

Whether you are an emerging or established leader, our course Fearless Networking – Connecting Across Cultures can help you learn more about your own communication style and discover how it can be further developed to facilitate successful professional networking and meaningful relationships. 

Super connector and SCS instructor Jean Chow is currently focused on her successful professional coaching practice, aptly known on social media as @MsBizWiz, she also hosts the “Dream Network”, a highly diverse, international professional networking organization, which she founded in 2018. Jean knows instinctively what could be and is excited by the prospect of connecting people, ideas, and projects to get things done or to create something bigger and better. No longer active on the squash court (now Pickleball!), she is delighted her squash network continues to thrive and help others. Jean enjoys spending time as a volunteer mentor helping youth recognize and realize their potential and is writing a field guide about her intelligent approach to successful networking.

Megan Fleming had her eye on a new career pathway when she decided to register for the first course in the School of Continuing Studies Digital Strategy and Communications Management certificate. 

“I really wanted to increase my skills and expertise in digital communications strategy and social media beyond my experiences in using social media personally and on a volunteer basis. I was looking towards transitioning into a different role on my team if it were to become available or find another similar role at U of T in Communications & Knowledge Translation,” she explains.

Her manager was fully supportive of her desire to add new skills to her resume, seeing the potential benefit to both Fleming and the team she worked with, and encouraged her to take advantage of the courses available through SCS.  

Sure enough, Fleming has been able to use the knowledge she acquired through her SCS courses as she made the transition from Research Administrative Assistant to Communications & Knowledge Translation Officer.

“This role is way more up my alley, and I feel confident and prepared to fulfill its responsibilities thanks to a lot of what I learned through this certificate,” she says.

“I’m still learning as I go, but I constantly find myself returning to my course notes to support my work.”

For Fleming, one of the most valuable takeaways of the certificate came early in the first course: that her storytelling didn’t always need to be perfect to be effective. 

“As part of my course, Foundations of Digital Communications Strategy & Social Media, I was to create my own website, blog, and, optionally, podcast. I’m a keener, so I challenged myself to start my first podcast at the intersection of health promotion and communications,” she shares. 

“This course truly encouraged me to just get the episodes out there, but I was able to learn as I went about how to do so strategically. While I’m still thinking about what the future of this podcast holds, I’m so thankful for the push from this course to get me to try out a different communications medium.”

In fact, Fleming says trying her hand at podcasting wound up being some of her favourite coursework.

“I started my own podcast entitled Holding Healthy Space, which was all about communicating about health and social issues in a transparent, respectful, equitable, and empowering way,” she says.

“I was able to connect with a friend who works as a boundaries and burnout coach to chat about her work and how to hold space on social media for self-proclaimed people-pleasers and overachievers, and I developed and shared a whole episode about how to encourage our loved ones to engage in healthier behaviours, sharing a framework with the audience to keep in their health communication toolkit when holding healthy space. This project was so rewarding and fun!”

The biggest challenge Fleming came across in completing her courses was simply to carve out the time, but she says that assignments tailored to learners’ choice of topics meant she really looked forward to doing her homework. She believes the certificate in Digital Strategy and Communications Management could be useful to anyone wanting to be on top of the latest trends in social media and digital communications, particularly emerging communications specialists or anyone using digital communications and social media as part of their work.

Based on her experience, Fleming shares her advice for other people exploring lifelong learning at the University of Toronto: 

“Find ways to make it exciting for you, and if you can’t, it might not be for you! There’s always a way to bring in a personal touch into the assignments or find ways to apply the teachings to your own work.”

Cyber threats can be scary, and for good reason. Malware can be lurking in a suspicious email users get convinced to click. All it takes is one crack in the door of the network to let all the wrong ones in; spear phishing witches, ravenous ransom wolves, you name it!

But never fear! While torches, pitchforks and silver bullets never put down a data breach, a resilient security culture in your organization is your best bet for keeping the beasts at bay.

In a highly digitized world, data is an omnipresent asset that needs to be protected. The security of data has become an ubiquitous concern as it pertains to Privacy, Intellectual Property, Nation and Citizen safety and the overall competitive advantage of firms and organizations.

The Cyber Security threat landscape is continuously evolving and becoming more sophisticated, hence more dangerous. This means that people, both in their private lives and at every level in organizations, including members of the Boards of Directors, need to be aware of the risks and be equipped with the pertinent knowledge and skills to manage them.

The SCS Cyber Security Foundations course addresses these needs and delves into the key tenets of Cyber Security resilience: confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data.

This October (Cyber Security Awareness Month), here are five tips to get you started with improving your personal cybersecurity: 

1. Go to "Settings" on your mobile devices and enable automatic software updates under 'General'
2. Maintain strong passwords that should be unique and update them on a regular basis 
3. Don't share passwords with anybody (people, suppliers, banks, retailers, credit card companies or any other company or organization), as no legitimate entity will ask for them 
4. Be suspicious of emails from unknown sources (people, suppliers, various companies or organizations) and for those, don't click on links or open attachments 
5. Don't keep too many open browsers (windows) on your mobile devices (desktops, laptops, tablets, phones) and close them as soon as you can.

To learn more about SCS Cyber Security courses, please visit our Cyber Security Management Certificate page. 
 

Raquel Richards’ decision to join the U of T School of Continuing Studies community was sparked by a lifelong dream to attend courses at a university and inspired by her late great grandmother’s values of education, knowledge, and success. Little did she know that registering for the SCS Foundations of Digital Communications Strategy & Social Media course, would set her on an exciting new career path in the field of AI.

The early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic also pushed Richards to re-examine her life and work goals. “The pandemic's impact on our ability to embrace life's experiences became apparent, compelling me to confront the need to pursue my passions and carve out a life that resonated with my authentic self and aspirations,” she explains. 

“At the same time, I took a deep dive into the adverse effects of my existing job and made the pivotal choice to depart from my 10-year position at the LCBO.”

Richards knew she was interested in digital content creation, and so she launched her business “Wrong Door Creative,” dedicated to just that. At the same time, began working towards her certificate in Multimedia Storytelling and Content Marketing at SCS. 

A moment of concern arose for Richards early in the Foundations of Digital Communications Strategy and Social Media course when she realized it included a PR component. “Around a quarter of the way through, I realized the curriculum has a large public relations component— a domain I was seeking to move away from,” she says.  

However, she soon discovered that the AI element of this course would be a crucial step on her career journey.

Now, in addition to her work as a content creator and multimedia storyteller, Richards works as an AI prompt writer, currently on assignment for Meta, through IT services and talent company, TEKsystems. She works on the composition, evaluation, and analysis of prompts that fuel an AI chatbot's interactions and responses.

Richards says she enjoys putting her affinity for words, creativity, and the realm of artificial intelligence to work in this new position. 

“What brings me joy is the rapid pace and dynamic nature of the field,” she adds. 
 

“The constant evolution of technology, the ever-changing interface, and the emergence of new trends—It’s exhilarating and chaotic, and I love it!”

The knowledge gained from the Foundations of Digital Communications Strategy and Social Media course was instrumental to Richards finding herself working in the world of AI.

“This initial exposure served as a catalyst for further exploration on my part. I delved into self-guided learning on additional programs and platforms,” she explains. 

“This course acted as a springboard, providing me with essential insights and initiating my journey into AI.”

Richards also particularly credits instructor Alison Garwood-Jones with supporting her along her learning and career path. “Her teaching approach, rooted in genuine passion for the subject matter and extensive experience in the digital communications field, made a substantial impact on me,” Richards says. 

“One of the standout aspects of Alison's instruction was her ability to foster a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere. I felt at ease participating in class discussions, offering insights, comments, and suggestions. This comfort was invaluable in facilitating an open exchange of ideas and knowledge. Moreover, her responsiveness to student questions further enhanced my learning experience, ensuring that concepts were understood.”

In addition to finding herself on an exciting new career path, Richards says the best thing about taking the Foundations of Digital Communications Strategy and Social Media course was the constant anticipation of wondering what she would learn next. She believes the course could be helpful for anyone seeking to enhance their skill set in business and marketing management within the realm of social media, as well as for PR professionals wishing to keep their skills up-to-date or for anyone looking to develop a foundational understanding of the world of generative AI. 

She also offers some advice for anyone looking to take this course or any of the courses in the Multimedia Storytelling and Content Marketing certificate: “Allocate dedicated time for the course throughout the semester. The course demands consistent effort and engagement. Set aside the time slots for the webinars, reading course materials, and working on assignments. Attend class (live webinars if taken online), they offer real-time interaction. If you miss one watch the recording ASAP so you don’t fall behind. Actively participate in discussions, both in class and online, and don't hesitate to ask questions. It’s how you learn!”
 

While many people are aware of the concept of entrepreneurship (when someone comes up with their own idea or product and uses it to start a business or businesses, finding success by taking risks) you may not be as familiar with the idea of intrapreneurship. 

According to SCS Business Innovation instructor Ferhan Bulca, intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs share a similar mindset. 

“The differences between intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs are very subtle. Intrapreneurs do it for an organization whereas entrepreneurs build their own companies,” he explains. 

“When I look at the fundamental drives behind these two types of people, intrapreneurs do it because they’re passionate about the solution and solving every problem for their customer base and they’re happy to do this in an organization, for somebody else.”

So why is intrapreneurship so important to organizational success? Here are three reasons to encourage intrapreneurship in your organization: 

1. To boost employee morale

Encouraging your team members to flex their creative problem-solving muscles and rewarding them when they come up with and follow through on ideas to further your organization’s goals is a clear win-win. Cultivating an environment where intrapreneurship is valued and rewarded, and where employees can see their work makes a measurable difference, will help keep them motivated, and help your organization to retain top talent. 

2. To Increase Agility

With the rapid evolution of technology and social change of the past few years, it has never been more important for organizations to respond to change quickly and nimbly. A team that is accustomed to taking initiative and ownership of creative solutions is crucial to your organization’s ability to quickly pivot and evolve to meet the changing needs of your customers or clients. 

3. To Foster Innovation 

“Intrapreneurs are well positioned to become change agents within their organization because innovation by definition is a novel way of doing something in a different and better way,” says Bulca.

“Intrapreneurs have to deliver this [solution] to the organization and change the way things are done currently into a new way, which requires them to be change agents.”

Want to learn more about intrapreneurship? Check out our Business Innovation courses, now open for registration.

June 9th is World Accreditation Day. Established in 2010, the day aims to highlight the value of credential assessment and accreditation for individuals and for the global community.

Credential assessment in Canada is the process of evaluating foreign educational and professional credentials to determine their equivalency to Canadian standards.

For communities, accreditation means they can benefit from the skills newcomers to Canada developed in their former countries. For newcomers, accreditation can help them get one step closer to their career and learning goals in Canada.

This year’s theme, Accreditation: Supporting the Future of Global Trade, also focuses on how accreditation supports several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Wondering how accreditation could help you reach your goals? Here are five reasons to have your educational credentials assessed in Canada:

1.    Job opportunities: Many employers in Canada require a credential assessment to ensure that their employees have the necessary qualifications and skills for the job.

2.    Educational opportunities: Credential assessment can help you gain admission to Canadian universities and colleges.

3.    Immigration: Credential assessment is often required for immigration to Canada, particularly for Express Entry programs.

4.    Social integration: Having your credentials assessed can help you integrate into Canadian society and identify new opportunities for personal and professional growth.

5.    Professional Licensing: Credential assessment can help you to gain a professional license to work in a regulated profession, such as nursing is some provinces, in Canada.

If you’re looking for financial assistance to have your credentials assessed, Windmill Microlending can help. Windmill Microlending is Canada’s only national charity offering affordable loans to skilled immigrants and refugees. Their microloans help clients pay for the costs of accreditation, training and career development.

And, when you’re ready to have your credentials assessed, the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies Comparative Education Service is here to help you reach your educational and career goals in Canada.

The Comparative Education Service (CES) was established in 1967 and is Canada’s only university-based academic credential assessment agency. We are trusted by employers and professional agencies throughout Canada, and our assessment reports are recognized throughout Canada and beyond. CES also supports clients’ continuous learning with a special offer — a one-time $200 tuition discount — that can be applied towards one of hundreds of courses and certificate programs available at the School of Continuing Studies.  
 

Mindfulness, and how it can help you succeed in the workplace, was the most recent topic covered by the latest installment of the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies free Knowledge Hub webinars.

Mindfulness expert and SCS instructor Michael Apollo joined us to discuss current workplace trends, demonstrate a mindfulness pause practice, and demystify mindfulness for those new to the concept.  

To begin, Apollo dug into some of the reasons why an interest in mindfulness has been growing, particularly in the past few years, using the acronym VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity). “These are some of the most stressful things that a human being can endure in the moment,” Apollo explains. “This acronym was created around 15 years ago to articulate the type of experience that an individual goes through in the midst of the fog of war. It has become more and more prominent over the years.”

Apollo asked webinar participants to consider whether most people have had more or less of a VUCA reality over the past five years. “Our landscapes are becoming more turbulent than organizations are becoming resilient to this type of change,” he says. 

“This has a definite effect on us. We know there is change happening around the world. You look at political strife, and there are economic realities coming up, it seems with greater rapidity. These changes are affecting us at work, the decisions we make, they’re affecting our stress levels, and affecting the amount of work that we have to do.”

To his point, statistics have shown that about ¾ of people across North America have reported at least one symptom of a mental health condition in the last year. “About 80-90% of staff and workers have found that the past few years have been the most challenging and stressful in their lives,” Apollo says. “For some people, especially those who are knowledge workers, and perhaps in greater positions of privilege, they maybe had a better experience during this time, but for the vast majority of us, it has been a very challenging time. “ 

At the same time, Apollo adds, there has also been a large migration to people working online or in hybrid work environments. For many of those working online, this has led to an increase in the number of hours on average that they are working. 

“I’ve worked with thousands of people since the beginning of the pandemic in different organizations delivering mindfulness programming and something I’ve always found fascinating is, we’ll be working through this training over a period of time and I continually hear about how people feel like they’re not doing enough and feeling bad about the fact that they’re not doing enough when in reality they’re actually doing more,” he says. “And so, this work-life balance as well has shifted and changed and it’s more like work-life blending.”

So how can we manage a work life that is blended into our home life? 

Apollo says that to deal well, be well, and work well in the current reality of demanding workplaces where the line between work life and home life might be increasingly blurred, we need to develop our skills in empathy, conflict management, influence, and self awareness. 

“Research shows that when we’re faced with stress, these are the first skills that start to degrade,” he explains. “So, what do we do? How can we support ourselves during this time?”

Apollo goes on to reference a study that found that the best predictors of leaders being able to successfully navigate times of crisis or change was not a predefined response plan but behaviours and mindsets that would prevent them from overreacting to yesterday’s developments and help them look ahead. 

“We need to be adaptable. We need to be able to respond in the moment. And there are some key aspects to this: being able to be resilient, flexible, and to have bounded optimism. So, look to the future with a sense of hope, skillfully, so not being blinded by positivity. And also having the ability to not get caught up into the ways we’ve been doing things in the past. So how do you develop this ability?

Apollo says this is where mindfulness comes into play. “Mindfulness is one of the most studied behaviour-change training methods. That has evidence-based outcomes, which means the research is showing it’s as effective as coaching, cognitive behavioural therapy, the gold standards that are out there, in cultivating a whole host of benefits within people. 

Apollo lists improved resilience, communication, decision making, productivity, negotiation, engagement and decreased sick days and healthcare costs among the evidence-based outcomes of mindfulness. 

He goes on to walk participants through an exercise he calls a “mindful pause”, a brief mindfulness exercise, and explains how taking a pause like this during your workday can help to reset, restore and sustain your focus, to cope with stress, and to be more present during tasks and conversations. 

“Another great thing is you can always do it as a pause before stepping into work mode and as a pause before shifting out of your work mode.” 

Watch the full recording to try out the mindful pause exercise yourself and to learn more about mindfulness and how you can apply it in your workplace by visiting the free SCS Knowledge Hub.