Ontario General Contractors Association upgrades education offerings

By Patricia Williams, Daily Commercial News

In keeping with its long-established mandate to provide education and training for its members, the Ontario General Contractors Association (OGCA) is gearing up for another season of continuing education.

On tap for 2009-2010 are courses dealing with a wide range of subjects, among them making presentations to potential clients, health and safety risk management for general contractors and fundamentals of concrete technology.

Others deal with aspects of part 3 of the Ontario Building Code and Bill 168, an act amending the Occupational Health and Safety Act. That legislation requires all Ontario employers to have a violence prevention policy and program in place.

The lion’s share are being presented in partnership with other organizations – Excel Thru Learning, the law firm of Gowling Lafleur Henderson, the Ready Mixed Concrete Association of Ontario and the construction section of the ADR Institute of Ontario.

“We (contractors) have to stay current,” says OGCA president Clive Thurston. “We cannot lose sight of the importance of training and continuing education. If we do that, we’re inviting trouble.”

Thurston said that while the association has been offering continuing education courses since the 1980s, there has been a shift in focus since those days.

“The world is changing,” he said. “We’ve cut back on the number of courses and focused more on creating courses that are on a higher level.

“The reason is that people coming out of the schools and the universities today are better trained. They have the technical knowledge that many of us who grew up learning by the seats of our pants lacked.”

The association also is exploring “new and better ways” of delivering courses. Some already are available via webinar. In addition, online training is offered through a partnership with Vubiz. More than 200 courses are available.

In addition to putting on courses at the OGCA’s offices on client presentations and basic project management skills, Excel Thru Learning also provides onsite training at company offices.

“The instructors will actually go out to a company’s office to put on a seminar or a training program,” Thurston said. “We’re hoping that will help firms get the training they need in these busy times.”

Additional information on upcoming continuing education courses is available on the OGCA’s website.