Looking to the Learners

Very early in the process, the REAL Committee recognized that the learners would be the best source of information for providing direction on the Centre’s development. Through in-depth and across site surveys and focus groups, the learners defined the kind of learning centre they envisioned. These employees identified that they needed:

• the opportunity to refresh and acquire learning;

• to address learning skills in a positive, safe, and convenient setting;

• to be active players in this new environment of learning.

It is a given that if a learning centre is going to be successful it must always mirror the needs of its learners. To insure that the initiative stayed on course, REAL crafted and committed to a philosophy for the Centre. This philosophy states that “The Learning Centre provides opportunities for individual development through the facilitation of learning and education in a positive environment.” (REAL Committee, October 1998). The committee also believed that the Centre needed to be employee driven. To meet this goal:

• TLC offers only courses suggested by employees and the registration and attendance of learners is strictly confidential. The Coordinator of the Centre is an employee of the Open Learning Agency and therefore neither union nor management at Teck Cominco. Students' records belong to the Open Learning Agency.

• The learners attend on their own time, but Teck Cominco pays for all courses and does not charge back to the participants. The Coordinator schedules around the 15 different working shifts of Teck Cominco, which operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In this way, it identifies the strongest barrier identified by the learners which is shift work.

Operating the Centre with these guiding principles has been met with enthusiasm by both the employees and the employer. In 36 months, 42% or 758 learners have completed over 2300 learning experiences in the Centre. However, there has been one very persistent issue: some learners sign up for courses and then do not attend. There has been speculation that learners do this because the courses are free; however, the trainers — who run courses with paid time — have also expressed this same frustration. Other hunches to explain non attendance seemed to include fatigue, disinterest, or low morale. But these were undocumented and therefore difficult to understand. As much as most learners do attend their classes, for sessions with small numbers non attendance can significantly impact the effectiveness of the learning experience.