Shrinking the Skills Gap Online

By Jennifer Lee

As a career counselor, you probably find the Internet a rich source of information. As a result, you may find that you are turning more and more toward the Internet as a resource as you serve a wide range of clients with an even wider range of needs.

So, how do you help clients optimize their skills when they are trying to find a career? How do you guide them towards closing the gap between their skills and the jobs they seek? And how do you help your clients address that gap when they are already leading busy lives?

In British Columbia, all public post-secondary schools offer online courses and programs, and with one of the best post-secondary transfer systems in Canada, there are many flexible career development options. Students can readily find out which courses their institution will accept as credit towards a degree or certificate when they take courses at other post-secondary institutions. To make it even easier, students can access all online and distance courses, the BC Transfer Guide and the provincial online education planning tool through one convenient online resource: www.BCcampus.ca.

BCcampus, which is being enhanced with many automated services this coming year, is the online learning connection that lets students choose the education and training options they need — and they can choose from all of the public post-secondary institutions in British Columbia!

What is online or, as it is also known, eLearning? How is it different from distance learning? Are they not one and the same? When we talk about distance learning, we are talking about a traditional method in which course materials are sent to students by mail. Students receive course materials and schedules and they are advised on what is expected. With distance learning, students are largely self-reliant, whereas in eLearning there are online student support services that provide opportunities to connect with their instructors, other students and to a wealth of relevant information. And with rapidly changing technology, new media that allows better interactivity and simulation is also being introduced as new courses and programs are being developed.

Not everyone is aware of the growth in online learning, but if your clients want to try innovative ways to access high-quality options for the kind of life-long learning that will let them pursue their career goals, they can find them through resources like BCcampus and other online education resources across Canada: eCampusAlberta (www.ecampusalberta.ca), Campus Saskatchewan (https://www.usask.ca/), OntarioLearn (www.ontariolearn.com). Your clients can also have a look at how other students have found online learning useful through the experience of Gail Collette from Northern British Columbia and surveys completed by current online students.

But how do you know if your client is a candidate for online learning? Online resources like BCcampus offer assistance in evaluation as well. For instance, in the BCcampus website, there is an online self-test that offers 10 questions to help you assess your client’s online learning potential.

Learning is learning, regardless if it happens in a classroom or at home on a computer under the direction of instructors who know what it takes to make online learning successful.

Online learning or eLearning can provide your clients with the convenience and flexibility they require to gain the skills they need to qualify for the jobs they seek by accessing their education and training choices when and where they need it.

Article written by Jennifer Lee of BCcampus.

BCcampus is an online educational resource connecting students and educators to online programs and resources across all post-secondary institutions in British Columbia. For more information, please visit: www.BCcampus.ca.