“emerit provides comprehensive tools for people who want to develop their supervisory skills,” says Charmaine Carswell, Grouse Mountain’s director of human resources. She particularly favours emerit's self-study format, which allows learners to study at their own pace, with scheduled feedback sessions and coaching built in with their own departmental manager to reinforce concepts learned.
emerit’s program provides valuable resources and learning modules for those wanting to move into a supervisory position, for recently promoted supervisors needing to gain knowledge quickly, or experienced supervisors seeking to refresh their skills. “While recognizing past experience, the program obliges learners to study finance, administration, human resources management and many other topics,” says go2's emerit coordinator Ramona Scheiding. “It helps learners to identify their weaknesses as well as strengths and enables them to fine-tune their skills.”
Scheiding says that despite its intensity, the program, like other emerit products, can be completed in as little as six months. Moreover, those interested in taking the program or providing it to colleagues can save money under a limited-time deal from go2. Until June 30, those who register for the online version of the Supervisor Learning program will receive 50 per cent off costs plus an additional 10 per cent off the registration fee for Supervisor Professional Certification when purchased at the same time.
Grouse Mountain Resorts and Destination Osoyoos have used the emerit Supervisor program in different ways. Grouse Mountain responded to a request for training by suggesting emerit over a similar American program in order to evaluate the program’s potential for further use by the resort, which at peak employs up to 900 people. “We were looking at what supervisory skills training and F&B manager training was available in the Canadian market, and emerit has many advantages. First and foremost it is well organized and offers an extremely professional approach to education,” says Carswell.
Jo Knight (left) and Millie Jarrett on the occasion of Millie receiving her professional certification. |
Destination Osoyoos's executive director Jo Knight’s interest in lifelong learning inspired her to obtain her Supervisor Certification while she was a manager at the Pacific Rim Visitors Centre. She believes the designation helped her get hired as a manager at Destination Osoyoos — and then promoted to her current position. “The organization wanted the best talent for its new provincial facility, and none of the other applicants had the Supervisor certification on their résumés,” says Knight.
Like Knight, Grouse Mountain’s housekeeping manager Laetitia Jonnery is a supporter of ongoing education, and although she had five years of managerial experience under her belt when she obtained her certification in 2009, she found the process well worth the effort. “The reading material appears a bit overwhelming at first, but everything is well explained, and the exercises in each chapter encourage you to practise what you’ve just studied,” she says. “I learned many new and helpful things in all of the topics I covered, so I can appreciate how incredibly beneficial this program would be to those with less practical experience.”
Millie Jarrett, manager of BCVC@Osoyoos (which is operated by Destination Osoyoos), quickly formed a similar opinion after Jo Knight encouraged her to obtain her Supervisor Certification last year. “I was an assistant manager with an extensive background in the food and beverage industry when I took the program, and it really opened my eyes to new ways of doing things,” she says.
Jarrett adds that emerit differs from other learning programs because evaluators provide prompt feedback once work is handed in. "Plus, there’s a remarkable consistency in the teaching, unlike other programs in which one manual tells you one way of doing something and another tells you a different way.”
Based on Jonnery’s endorsement of the emerit program, Grouse Mountain management will explore the possibility of using it in different departments of the resort. As for Destination Osoyoos, Knight says emerit has become her “Number One training tool for staff. I was amazed while studying for my certification that I could apply what I had learned the night before to a real-life work situation the next day. That’s just one indication of an effective teaching tool, and it’s important because good training is one thing, but great training is paramount in our industry.”
