Kenton Low is quite happy to dispel the long-held belief that leaders are born rather than made.
That’s because, as dean of the BCIT’s School of Business + Media, Low and his team help shape and transform leaders on a daily basis through the school’s Corporate Training offering.
Organizations partner with BCIT Corporate Training to deliver programs that develop skills to address various organizational challenges, including employee recruitment, high turnover rates, and productivity.
Those organizations seeking to level up through BCIT cover a vast swath of public and private organizations across Canada: municipalities or provincial governments, First Nations organizations, those in the manufacturing or retail sectors, etc.
“We have people from all levels of an organization undertake our training – board members, CEOs, founders, senior executives, middle managers, and front-line staff,” Low explains.
Delving into the details
This process begins with a comprehensive onboarding process to fully understand the needs of an organization: creating high-performance teams, coaching junior employees through upward mobility or upskilling senior employees.
“We just keep peeling the issues back until we get to the core of what they need to focus on, and then we design training to address those issues,” Low describes.
The program then shifts to a unique training model focusing on the People-Purpose-Productivity framework, featuring interactive workshops led by expert facilitators and resulting in specific, results-based training.
A key element in the process is understanding the who behind the organization, the team's makeup, and the relevant background and skill sets that will enable charting a path forward.
“The purpose of the organization is the client’s driving force and reason for being,” Low says. “If they don’t have that, we will engage to help establish their purpose because we find that it’s much more effective to lead and drive an organization forward if they know what direction they’re heading.”
As for the productivity angle, that process entails creating and implementing an action plan to get the work done.
Skill building that sets you up for success
When put into real-world terms, Low provides an example of a recent client in need of strengthening employee skills.
“They came to us and said, ‘We have great team members and would like to invest in them. Can you provide training that addresses their needs for personal growth and solidifies ongoing success for our organization?’” Low explains. “The future is brighter when you value human capital and organizational intelligence.”
This approach and mindset are foundational to BCIT Corporate Training. Adding in instructors who come from industry equipped with tangible, everyday knowledge creates a compelling offering that is attracting a variety of organizations to BCIT.
“We enable and elevate the potential of people and organizations because we focus on building true partnerships and sharing the industry experience and wisdom of our instructors,” Low says.
To learn more about how BCIT’s School of Business + Media’s Corporate Training program can start your team’s transformation journey, visit bcit.ca/business-media/corporate-training.
