Professional Development Courses
Ontario Tech University is proud to offer professional development workshops to all employees.
By participating in the professional development opportunities that are available, you can enhance your professional skills, make new contacts through networking, connect with colleagues, stay up-to-date, gain new perspectives... and so much more!
We encourage you to explore the various courses we have to offer and discuss participation with your supervisor. Regardless of your personal or professional goals, we are confident that you will find a program that will provide you with the tools you need to grow your career at the university.
"Never stop learning, because life never stops teaching." - Unknown
- Sign up is available as sessions become published
- Please provide 48 hours notice if you are not able to attend a session for which you have registered by emailing hrtraining@ontariotechu.ca
- There is an internal charge of $50 for all no-shows
How to Register
Are you seeking to sharpen your skills, to deepen your knowledge, or to explore new career opportunities? Whatever your training objectives, HR's Learning Catalogues will help you meet your professional goals.
- Complete the registration form
- You will receive calendar invitations with links to your chosen session after completing the registration form.
In person workshops are usually hosted in Shawenjigewining Hall or Charles Hall classrooms.
Online workshops are delivered via an online platform like Google Meet or Zoom.
The University will accommodate employees with disabilities when providing professional development opportunities. For further support with accessibility needs and accommodation, please contact Health and Disability Management Specialist, Julie Day.
Crucial Conversations Training
Wellness Events, Initiatives and Training
September
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Sept 16 - Employee Orientation - Rookie to Ridgeback
Rookie to Ridgeback - Employee Orientation
Date: Tuesday September 16, 2025Time: 9:00 am to 12:00 pm(non-mandatory)This session is for all new employees at the University.The goals of the program are to:
- Welcome you to Ontario Tech University
- Highlight resources, benefits and perks available to you
- Provide you with context and tools to help you navigate your new environment
Learn about:
- Our history, leadership, mission, vision, values, priorities
- Our faculties and departments
- Understand how you fit into the organization
- Our socials
- Our policies
- Compliance
- EDI
- Campus Services
- How to engage on campus
- Pension and benefits
- Organizational development
- Employee and Labour Relations
- Health and Safety
- Health and Disability Management
- Wellness at Work
- Recruitment and Compensation
- Parking
- Security
- Booking Spaces
- Service Desk
- IT Services
- Employee Perks
- Food Services
- And so much more
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Sept 23 - Orientation to HR (for Managers) - Rookie to Ridgeback
Orientation to HR for ManagersDate: September 23, 2025Time: 10:00 am to 12:00 pmLocation: GoogleMeetLocation: Virtual(non-mandatory)
This course is for newly hired and existing Ontario Tech managers.
This session will provide an overview of:Health and Disability Management
- identify and list the goals and objectives of the Attendance Management Program and the Disability Support Program
- understand the processes around employee sick leaves, accommodation and workplace injuries;
- identify your role and responsibilities in assisting your employees to record, improve and manage their attendance; and
- discuss key areas of concern and opportunities related to supporting time and attendance
Wellness at Work
- identify the benefits of a Healthy Workplace
- discuss the role you play in supporting your employee's health and well-being
- learn where to access resources to support your health and the health of your team
Job Evaluation
- an overview of key concepts in job evaluation;
- documents and tools in how jobs are evaluated;
Recruitment and Compensation
- an overview of the Compensation Program and supporting salary administration guidelines
- an understanding of the process to initiate a position to Recruitment for posting; and
- Effectively plan and prepare for an interview by selecting the appropriate style and structure;
- Compose behavioural and competency-based interview questions and identify prohibited interview questions;
- Appropriately assess and select candidates while remaining compliant with legislation and collective agreements
Performance Development
- The Performance Development Cycle
- Timelines for Goal Setting, Check-Ins, and year-end performance reviews
- My HR Connection and Limited-Term Processes
- What’s in the collective agreement
Leadership Development
- Available programs, succession planning, and employee development
Professional Development
- How learning catalogues are developed
- Why your input is important
-
Sept 24/25 - Managing in a Unionized Environment (for Managers) - Rookie to Ridgeback
Managing in a Unionized Environment ( for Managers )
Date: September 24 and 25, 2025Time: 9:00 am to 12:00 pmLocation: ZoomLocation: Virtual(non-mandatory)
This course is for newly hired and existing Ontario Tech managers.It is the skills on display in day-to-day relationships that management determines the effectiveness of managers and unionized workers. It is the ongoing resolution of issues and problems that arise daily that will either create a culture of success or one of resistance. In this skill-building workshop, you will learn new skills and have a unique opportunity to discuss the application of the collective agreement into a practical context.Learning outcomes include:
- Understanding and managing the collective agreement with a guided Q&A session
- Managing conflict effectively with disgruntled and challenging employees
- Learning to leverage your communication skills to build trust and commitment
- Knowing when and how to provide constructive feedback that is different from discipline
- Providing the leadership skills that create a “can-do” environment
- Knowing when and how to engage employees to encourage ownership and accountability
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Sept 30 - Agile Productivity in the World of Work
Agile Productivity in the World of WorkDate: September 30, 2025Time: 9:00 am to 12:00 pmLocation: Inperson -TBDANDDate: November 4, 2025Time: 2:00 pm to 4:00 pmLocation: Virtual
Most people, when faced with change and pressure to go faster, plan less. Yet the agile, productive response is to stop, think and plan more. This two-part program will provide you with highly practical strategies, incorporating Agile methodologies, to help you manage your projects, time and energy. Content of this two part program includes:
- An introduction to Agile Methodology (with an emphasise on the Scrum framework) providing you with an understanding of what the Agile approach is all about - key principles, ceremonies, artifacts, etc.
- Highly practical, specific best practices to help you apply Agile, and other core productivity practices, to help you better manage your projects and workloads.
- How to apply smart time-blocking strategies for proactively carving out time for your key deadlines and priorities. (instead of waiting for a “good time” when there’s nothing else to do, and no more change or uncertainty)
- An opportunity to share and discuss tools that are available and how they might be used even better and with more consistency to support Agile productivity practices. We’ll also provide you with a simple, yet highly effective tool to help you plan out and manage multiple priorities/projects simultaneously.
- Agile productivity is all about helping people & teams adjust to change so we’ll provide you with powerful, solution-focused strategies to help you explore and negotiate priorities as change happens and multiple requests come at you.
- How to “resist the noise” of technology (email, IM ) and create small windows of high quality, undistracted focus time to do quality, focused work.
October
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Oct 7 - Cybersecurity 101: Cybersecurity Awareness Month
In today’s digital environment, safeguarding personal and professional information is more important than ever. This session will share best practices for protecting your data, strengthening account security, recognizing social engineering attempts, and securing your devices.
Whether you’re new to cybersecurity or just need a refresher, this session will provide valuable knowledge to help protect yourself and the university from cyber threats. We encourage all staff and faculty to register so we can help keep our community safe.
Date: Tuesday, October 7
Time: Noon to 1 p.m.
Location: Virtual
Target Audience: Faculty/Staff -
Oct 16 - Excel
Excel
Date: October 16, 2025
Time: 12:30 PM to 4:30 PMLocation: ZoomLocation: Virtual(non-mandatory)Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet programme that is part of the Microsoft Office Suite, and its online and desktop versions allow users to share and collaborate on their files with others in real-time. Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program that is included in the Microsoft Office suite of applications.
- Enterprises use MS Excel as a spreadsheet solution because of its simplicity for analyzing, sorting, reporting, and storing data. Excel is used for analysis by organizations of all sizes worldwide to perform financial analysis and accounting tasks.
- In this Microsoft Excel Masterclass training, you will learn about different vital skills required to use Excel to create and edit workbooks and spreadsheets effectively. This training course will show you how to fully unlock Excel’s powerful capabilities for sorting and manipulating data.
- After attending this training course, you will be able to generate equations, allowing you to give additional data on critical company functions. You will be able to create spreadsheets that better organize data and give a clearer picture of what's being input.
This course is split into 4 easy-to-understand modules, which will enable you to generate equations, allowing you to give additional data on critical company functions.
Syllabus
Module 1: Navigation of the Excel Interface
Module 2: Use of Lists and Tables
Module 3: Conditional Formatting – Bringing Your Presentation to Life
Module 4: Using Formulas and Creating Pivot Tables
November
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Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue - employee version and leader version
When it comes to the health of relationships, teams, and organizations, one thing affects everything: communication. Backed by 30 years of social science, Crucial Conversation skills represent the standard in effective communication. Improve your skills and get better outcomes by attending a training course.
Learning Objectives
The communication skills taught in this training focus on a specific kind of interaction: those when stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong. This is not a course on winning friends or winning people to your way of thinking; it’s about strengthening relationships and securing results in the moments that matter most.
This course teaches nine powerful skills for working through disagreement to achieve better resources: Get unstuck, Master my stories, Start with heart, State my path, Make it safe, Learn to look, Seek mutual purpose, Explore others’ paths, and Move to action.
In this course, you’ll learn:
- What to do before a Crucial Conversation to:
- Spot the Crucial Conversations that are keeping you from what you want.
- Keep your strong emotions from taking control of the conversation.
- Create emotions that will bring you into dialogue
- What to do during a Crucial Conversation to:
- Stay focused on what you really want.
- Start a conversation with respect and honesty.
- Talk to almost anyone about almost anything.
- Notice the subtle and not-so-subtle signs that you and others are not in dialogue.
- Find common ground, even when it seems impossible.
- Listen actively and help others add their meaning to the pool.
- What to do at the end of a Crucial Conversation to:
- Turn a Crucial Conversation into action and results.
Crucial Conversation Videos
Learn more about this training with these videos.
Upcoming Training Sessions
Crucial Conversations: Employees
- Date: Monday, November 3, 2025 to Friday, November 7, 2025 (2.5 hours x 5 days)
- Time: 9:00 a.m. to noon
- Location: Virtual
- Target Audience: Employees
Note: Participants must attend all dates to receive their certificate.
REGISTER FOR November 3 - 7, 2025 EMPLOYEE SESSION.
Crucial Conversations: Managers/Directors
- Date: Monday, November 10, 2025 to Friday November 14, 2025 (2.5 hours x 5 days)
- Time: 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm
- Location: Virtual
- Target Audience: Managers/Directors
Note: Participants must attend all dates to receive their certificate.
REGISTER FOR NOVEMBER 10-14, 2025 MANAGERS/DIRECTORS SESSION.
- What to do before a Crucial Conversation to:
January 2026
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Jan 22 - Orientation to HR for Managers - Rookie to Ridgeback
Orientation to HR for Managers
Most people, when faced with change and pressure to go faster, plan less. Yet the agile, productive response is to stop, think and plan more. This two-part program will provide you with highly practical strategies, incorporating Agile methodologies, to help you manage your projects, time and energy. Content of this two part program includes:
Date: January 22, 2026Time: 10:00 am to 12:00 pmLocation: GoogleMeetLocation: Virtual(non-mandatory)
This course is for newly hired and existing Ontario Tech managers.
This session will provide an overview of:Health and Disability Management
- identify and list the goals and objectives of the Attendance Management Program and the Disability Support Program
- understand the processes around employee sick leaves, accommodation and workplace injuries;
- identify your role and responsibilities in assisting your employees to record, improve and manage their attendance; and
- discuss key areas of concern and opportunities related to supporting time and attendance
Wellness at Work
- identify the benefits of a Healthy Workplace
- discuss the role you play in supporting your employee's health and well-being
- learn where to access resources to support your health and the health of your team
Job Evaluation
- an overview of key concepts in job evaluation;
- documents and tools in how jobs are evaluated;
Recruitment and Compensation
- an overview of the Compensation Program and supporting salary administration guidelines
- an understanding of the process to initiate a position to Recruitment for posting; and
- Effectively plan and prepare for an interview by selecting the appropriate style and structure;
- Compose behavioural and competency-based interview questions and identify prohibited interview questions;
- Appropriately assess and select candidates while remaining compliant with legislation and collective agreements
Performance Development
- The Performance Development Cycle
- Timelines for Goal Setting, Check-Ins, and year-end performance reviews
- My HR Connection and Limited-Term Processes
- What’s in the collective agreement
Leadership Development
- Available programs, succession planning, and employee development
Professional Development
- How learning catalogues are developed
- Why your input is important
REGISTER -
Jan 26 - Managing in a Unionized Environment (for Managers) - Rookie to Ridgeback
Managing in a Unionized Environment ( for Managers )
Most people, when faced with change and pressure to go faster, plan less. Yet the agile, productive response is to stop, think and plan more. This two-part program will provide you with highly practical strategies, incorporating Agile methodologies, to help you manage your projects, time and energy. Content of this two part program includes:
Date: January 26 and 27, 2025Time: 9:00 am to 12:00 pmLocation: ZoomLocation: Virtual(non-mandatory)
This course is for newly hired and existing Ontario Tech managers.It is the skills on display in day-to-day relationships that management determines the effectiveness of managers and unionized workers. It is the ongoing resolution of issues and problems that arise daily that will either create a culture of success or one of resistance. In this skill-building workshop, you will learn new skills and have a unique opportunity to discuss the application of the collective agreement into a practical context.Learning outcomes include:
- Understanding and managing the collective agreement with a guided Q&A session
- Managing conflict effectively with disgruntled and challenging employees
- Learning to leverage your communication skills to build trust and commitment
- Knowing when and how to provide constructive feedback that is different from discipline
- Providing the leadership skills that create a “can-do” environment
- Knowing when and how to engage employees to encourage ownership and accountability
REGISTER