Learning centre in a city newspaper

The learning Centre at the Calgary Herald resulted from a company commitment to comprehensive staff development program for all employees. A new emphasis on basic learning needs in math, communication, and computers extends throughout the organization. Basic- skills training is solidly positioned in the learning culture at the Herald. Training is key to job mobility, and the Centre supports training initiatives for new responsibilities, new jobs, and workplace reorganization.

Twenty-four-hour access to the Centre accommodates shift work and the irregular hours of many newspaper employees. Alberta Vocational College, in partnership with the Herald, makes an instructor available for consultation three evenings and two afternoons a week.

Many employees use the Centre for help with computers: introduction to computer use, word-processing, software support, and keyboard training. Other courses include basic accounting, reading and writing skills, GED, and pre-apprenticeship training in math and science. The Centre also offers resume preparation and a career counselling course for employees who have been laid off and for those on disability leave.

Group seminars with concentrated learning time on writing and computer software have been popular. Topics have included business writing (letters, memos, grammar, organization), plain writing, and DOS. Instructors from the Centre also help employees individually at their workstations.

Now that the Centre is established and operating regularly, it hopes to attract more employees from the production and distribution departments, to develop special programs related to the work of individual departments, and to experiment with learning contracts suited to employees in the unique Herald workplace.