Trades keep stressing employability skills

With the stock markets plummeting and job markets in disarray, Kwantlen’s trades and technology programs are marching to the same beat they always have.

“We’re doing what we’ve always done,” said Dana Goedbloed, dean of the trades and technology. “We’re stressing employability skills.”

Those skills, such as resumé writing, customer service and communication, are a vital part of every trade and technology department. The Cloverdale campus is home to 16 different programs, including appliance repair, plumbing and carpentry.

Gerard Valerty, an instructor with the 36-week farrier program, which teaches horse hoof care, including horseshoeing, said that although being skilled at your trade is a must, it isn’t what gets students jobs.

“When you rank skills that they need, customer service is way up here,” Valerty said, drawing an imaginary line at his shoulders, “and technical skills are way down here,” he said, pointing down to his knees.

The ferrier program runs a not-for-profit business, and Valerty expects his students to act professionally at all times. “Sometimes, I even leave the building and call here, just to make sure they’re answering the phone the right way,” he said.

Loc Hepburn a welding instructor, is teaching students training for one of the sectors that has seen a big downturn in employment opportunities. “Up until recently, quite a few of my students got jobs. But now, everything’s slowing down and it keeps getting slower and slower,” Hepburn said.

“I always make sure they have resumés and I go through them. I give them advice all through the course, and at the end we really ramp it up and make sure they have all those extra skills,” he added.

Although each program dedicates a portion of its time to helping students create resumés, practice their interviewing and communication skills, career counsellor Rick Hives is on-site to offer one-on-one support.

Liberal leader pitches party to students, community

 

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff spoke to a crowd of nearly 300 gathered at Kwantlen’s Surrey campus Jan. 15 as part of his cross-country tour to woo the nation.

The former Harvard professor made his pitch on why he should be Canada’s next Prime Minister to an excited crowd of instructors, students and Liberal supporters who were free to submit written questions throughout the night.

For two hours the Etobicoke-Lakeshore MP spoke about everything from Gaza to the environment to post-secondary education. He stressed the need for increased university-research funding, saying that “the funny stuff in between our ears” is the “hope of the new generation.”

He spoke about the coalition too, but only to confirm that his party wouldn’t make a decision until they read the Conservative budget Jan. 27. He added that their main stipulations would be whether it creates jobs, saves jobs and helps those most in need.

Langley students welcomed back

The Langley campus had its Welcome Week Wednesday (Jan. 14) and it wasn’t nearly as busy as Richmond’s Welcome Week, held the day before, even though the Langley campus featured a band playing in the cafeteria.

There were about 10 tables of display, some were from Langley community groups such as Rotaract, and from Langley Township. The rest of the display tables were promoting services within Kwantlen, such as the Student Health Improvement Program and the Learning Centre.

Welcome Week at each of Kwantlen’s campuses is well under way and takes a bit more planning than suspected at first glance.

There are four Kwantlen campuses spread out across the Lower Mainland, each with different demographics and different needs.

According to Ashley Fehr, Kari Michaels and Vanessa Knight of the Kwantlen Student Association, Welcome Week is designed to address each campus’s individual needs.

Fehr says that the Langley campus is more conservative and religious so the KSA makes the welcome week activities a lot quieter than the other campuses.

She says that the Richmond campus is more hip-hop based and a lot of fun but “they don’t really like loud stuff.” Knight adds that the Richmond campus likes pool and poker tournaments rather than bands.

Michaels and Fehr say that the trade’s campus in Cloverdale is pretty much up for “whatever” and will do anything in any contest.

Fehr says that the Surrey campus is really busy so most of the students just walk by the Welcome Week activities, even though the campus is the largest.

All of the specifically designed Welcome Week days have the same purpose, to promote the KSA and local businesses in the areas, Fehr says.

She adds that welcome week this January is meant to raise awareness among the students for the 2009 KSA elections.

KSA provides free stuff for students as part of Richmond’s ‘Welcome Week’

Richmond students were welcomed back to classes on Tuesday by a wide array of information on free school services, employment opportunities and every student’s favorite — free stuff, courtesy of the Kwantlen Student Association.

The festivities were part of Welcome Week, which is going on at campuses all week.

Free stuff included airbrush tattooing, pizza and giveaways, including a contest for a home theatre system. Students like free food, said Reena Bali, Richmond’s KSA campus representative, who added that they’ve found that free food results in a better student turnout.

The KSA booths displayed information for students about benefit plans, free services and a confirmation they are currently fighting for the UPass. At a nearby table, the Student Health Improvement Program (SHIP) program was giving away an iPod, but required contestants to do push-ups in order to enter the contest.

Other tables featured fitness centres recruiting new members and offering free swag. Big Sister and other mentor programs set up booths displaying information on volunteer opportunities. The Canadian Border Services Agency also had its own table, recruiting student employees.

The Richmond KSA began planning the event in December during the winter holidays, said Bali. She estimated that they spent less than half of the event’s $1,500 budget, adding that sponsors were easier to find this year, because of Kwantlen’s new university status.

For those who missed the events Tuesday in Richmond, Bali said the KSA will probably be giving away free snacks tomorrow. Thursday, Rock Band will be set up in the rotunda around noon on a large projector screen and the KSA will be giving away snacks and prizes.

“Today, I think, was a huge success due to all the planning and everyone’s hard work,” she said.

“And I hope the student’s liked it.”

Student-funded Runner launches as newsmag in January

A group of Kwantlen students are preparing to launch the largest student publication in Canada. By the end of January, Kwantlen campuses will bear the fruits of their labour, a free newsmagazine titled The Runner.

According to advertising manager Mat Huff, The Runner will be a general interest publication covering the news, views, and opinions of the Kwantlen community.

Funded, owned, and operated by students, The Runner will publish less frequently than a normal newspaper, but will be heftier than most, hence the term newsmagazine.

Huff and The Runner’s growing staff are actively seeking students who are interested in writing, photography, editing, illustration, design and sales to “get in on the ground floor” and join their team in putting out the inaugural issue.

All contributors to The Runner are paid, and students can also sell ads at a 30-per-cent commission. Any level of commitment is welcome, and elected editors will be paid to work at least 20 hours per week.

Start-up funding for the newsmagazine flows from an annual $6 fee paid by all Kwantlen students, but just in case there are any objections, Huff assures that “there is an opt-out available.”

According to a pamphlet about The Runner scattered around Kwantlen’s campuses, finances and publishing are handled by Polytechnic Ink, a “non-profit student publishing society.”

Billed as “part of a complete university,” The Runner will be a member of the Canadian University Press, a national cooperative of student newspapers that also operates a news wire connecting all of its member papers.

Huff and The Runner’s staff will be holding information sessions starting next semester, but for more information they can currently be reached at 778-565-3801 or by email.

RELATED: Student newspaper scheduled to hit newsstands in January

‘First mourn, then work for change’

It was 19 years ago today, but it could easily have been yesterday.

Saturday, Dec. 6, marks the 19th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, when 14 women were gunned down at the Ecole Polytechnique engineering school in Montreal. Since the early 1990s, that day has been commemorated across the country as National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

Friday, members of the Kwantlen Faculty Association and women’s legal support group West Coast LEAF held a small memorial service in the rotunda of the Richmond campus. Shereen Hassan, chair of the Status of Women Committee of the KFA, began the memorial by calling on everyone to reflect on the continuing issue of violence against women-not just the Montreal Massacre, but also the women missing over the years from the Downtown Eastside.

Hasaan stood behind a table with 14 small tea-light candles and roses, each representing one of the women killed in the Montreal Massacre.   

“The Kwantlen Faculty Association’s message at these memorials is ‘First Mourn, then Work for Change,’” Hassan read to the small crowd, as she then encouraged those present to consider volunteering at places such as a women’s group and transition house or women’s centre, or to support charities that help battered women.

Hasaan was joined by Deanna Ogle and Amanda Macgregor, members of the women’s legal support group WestCoast LEAF, during the candle-lighting ceremony.

The 14 roses on display outnumbered the small audience, however. Only eight people stopped to take part in the ceremony, with most holding two roses each.

Similar memorials were held simultaneously at the Surrey and Langley campuses, and Thursday at the Cloverdale campus.

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KSA lost $50,000 on Cram Jam; inexperience blamed

(Note: This article has been edited to correct Trevor Loke’s name, which was misspelled as Locke in the original.)

The Kwantlen Student Association is blaming inexperience for a $50,000 loss on this year’s Cram Jam.

The event was held Sept. 26 and attracted fewer than 900 people. Given that there were three well-known headliners – Daniel Wesley, Ten Second Epic and Sloan – the newly-elected Director of Events and Student Life, Vanessa Knight, thought that the concert would have been a lot more successful.

The original budget for Cram Jam was $100,000 but it ended up costing almost $120,000. Knight says that the concert “took on a life of its own” and the money needed to be spent. She says that the KSA, a non-profit organization, never expected to make money.

Knight didn’t become involved with Cram Jam until the beginning of August, when she was appointed to the position after Trevor Loke resigned as Director of Events and Student Life for the KSA.

“He came up with all of the ideas and had this big grand plan and he resigned,” Knight said.

Knight thinks that the huge loss was because of unexpected costs because “we didn’t know what we were doing.”

Loke had allotted around $5,000 for advertising and he says that he had set up a provisional deal with CFOX, which would have allowed Cram Jam to be advertised cheaply. He says that CFOX understood that the KSA didn’t have a lot of money to advertise; when he left the KSA the budget for advertising was still at $5,000.

The actual cost of advertising on CFOX ended up costing $29,000. Another unexpected cost was the bill for advertising in the Vancouver Metro, which was supposed to cost nothing but ended up costing $12,000. Knight blames Loke for not planning properly for the actual cost of advertising.

Loke responded: “When the trains do not run on time you don’t blame John A. Macdonald for building the railroad.”

About two weeks before the event was held, James Manear from Precision Entertainment, offered to kelp the KSA out and ended up saving the KSA some money, which helped to make sure the loss was only $50,000.

Loke said he started planning Cram jam before he even took office last year. He drew up the first budget and a number of provisional dates that showed how the concert would look.

However, Knight says that concrete planning for Cram Jam didn’t actually start until early June.

“We pretty much did the revised budget as we went along. It would have been done in like August,” said Knight.

Loke said that he originally proposed a $70,000 budget, but there was a debate between council members about the size of the event, the bands and the location. Loke increased the budget to $100,000, which was approved by the KSA council. Knight says that nobody went over the budget with an experienced eye until Manear came. He knew that there was something wrong right away, she said.

The budget called for ticket sales revenue of about $102,250, but the actual income was only $9,030. Knight speculates that this huge difference is because the KSA charged too much for tickets sold to the general public. She also thinks that holding the concert on the south side of the Fraser River was a bad idea, and that there wasn’t enough advertising during the summer because the KSA was waiting for students to get back into school and to buy tickets.

Loke, however, thinks that the KSA, after he left, should have picked a target audience, instead “they just poured money into media outlets.”

Loke said that his original idea for Cram Jam was to have a break-even event. He proposed cutting funding to all other events going on around that time, so if there was a loss “it would come out of the same line.”

The $50,000 loss will come out of the KSA’s capital reserve fund.

Related: Locke suggests politics played a role in Cram Jam deficit

A political agenda inside the KSA may have had something to do with the $50,000 Cram Jam loss.

Trevor Loke, previously the Director of Events and Student Life, said that before he left, he had lined up a few Canadian Federation of Students-aligned school that were going to help sponsor the event., but that some people within the KSA had problems with that association.

In March 2008, as Cram Jam was coming together, the KSA was embroiled in a campaign to convince Kwantlen students to opt out of CFS membership. Students voted to reject the KSA’s proposal. Loke, an avid critic of the CFS, said that there are no reasons why the KSA shouldn’t have worked with the schools as Cram Jam was not a political event.

Loke had gotten a few of the CFS-aligned schools on board with Cram Jam to help with advertising costs and ticket sales. Locke said he later found out that those schools were not only not part of the event, they hadn’t been contacted, either. Loke also says that there were other sponsors that the KSA was looking at, and after he left, they weren’t contacted either.

Vanessa Knight was appointed to Locke’s position after he resigned two months before Cram Jam was held. Knight says that a few CFS-aligned schools were supposed to sponsor Cram Jam in return for cheap tickets for their students but it didn’t end up happening. Knight said that Kwantlen didn’t sponsor Cram Jam because it thought it was a bad investment. However, the CFS did sponsor Cram Jam “but not nearly as much as we thought they would,” she said.

Related articles:

NEW: Cram Jam: The Video

The Chronicle’s Cram Jam coverage from late September

Kwantlen receives $250,000 donation, largest-ever

The Kwantlen School of Horticulture has recieved a $250,000 donation from a prominent Richmond resident, the Kwantlen University Foundation officialy announced today.

Peter Dhillon, president and CEO of the Richberry Group, Canada’s largest cranberry producer, chose to support Kwantlen’s growing horitculture program because of its contributions to the community, and his family’s belief in accessible education.

Dhillon has been a resident of Richmond for the past 30 years. He has served on many local and national boards, including Simon Fraser University’s Board of Governors, the Vancouver International Airport Authority and Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc.

“It’s our belief — me, my family’s, and my business — to support horticulture industries any way we can,” said Dhillon to a small crowd of reporters and photographers at the Richmond campus conference centre Monday. “It’s an industry that’s been very good to my business, my family, my employees and myself.”

In return, Kwantlen will name a research lab the  R&H Dhillon Entomology Suite after Dhillon’s parents, Rashpal and Harbhjan, who invested in cranberry bogs in the late 1970s. Rashpal was also Canada’s first Indo-Canadian police officer.

The identity of the donor was kept anonymous until the 11:30 a.m. announcement, with the advance media invitation only identifying the donor as a prominent Indo-Canadian member of the Richmond agricultural community.

The donation is the largest financial donation in Kwantlen’s 27-year history. Richberry Group had made a similar donation in the past to the University of British Columbia’s Horticulture school.

Flu shots

Flu shots will be offered to students and staff during the last week of November at all Kwantlen campuses. The cost is $5 for students and $10 for staff (the regular price is $16.50). 

Shots will be available at:

• Richmond- Nov. 24 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Langley- Nov. 25 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Cloverdale- Nov. 26 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Surrey- Dec. 1 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

To get a shot, make an appointment at KSA Member Services.

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