UVic Citizen
This learning series is designed to broaden your understanding of what it means to be a part of the UVic community and help you make connections between your work, the broader context of the organization, and the post-secondary environment. Learners will gain an awareness of UVic's mission, vision, values, and strategic direction. These courses will challenge learners to take personal responsibility for how these values encourage inclusive excellence and contribute to the organization's goals. Courses support employees in developing skills to understand and serve the unique needs of various UVic community members. Learning outcomes support several of UVic's competencies and Strategic Plan priorities.
Download the Employee Learning Program Series Overview
UVic Citizen Series Snapshot (5 core courses):
Navigate UVic: Connect with the UVic community by learning about UVic's values and governance and finding your place within it.
Indigenous Cultural Acumen Training (ICAT): Broaden your understaning of Indigenous peoples and issues, colonialism, and education, and consider how to move forward.
Thrive in Your Team: Be an effective and reliable team member and contribute to a professional and proactive team.
Provide Excellent Service: Explore the essential elements of how to provide excellent service to the various customer groups at UVic.
Support Student Success: Discover ways to support and connect with students and make a difference in their experience on campus.
Two Electives: Select two elective courses (3.5 hours of learning each) from the list or submit an alternative for consideration. At least one elective should be a course offered by EQHR.
Learning Themes
- Taking personal responsibility for becoming a contributing member of an equitable and inclusive UVic community.
- Committing to ongoing learning as part of a learning organization in a shifting post-secondary environment.
- Connecting respectfully to community members across departments.
- Seeing yourself and your work as part of a larger whole.
- Applying relevant theories and best practices to your daily work in the UVic community.
Intended Audience
All UVic employees are welcome to participate in this learning series. Those with personal and professional development goals pertaining to service excellence, inclusivity, or connecting their work to UVic's strategic vision may have a particular interest.
Detailed Course Descriptions
Navigate UVic: Connect with the UVic community by learning about UVic's values and governance and finding your place within it.
Staff come to UVic from different sectors, including business, government, non-profit and other academic institutions. All employees at UVic are strongly encouraged to take this course to see how UVic works, how decisions are made, why we do what we do, and how each of us can play a role in creating our extraordinary environment and influencing our international reputation. Five different areas are included: Context, Governance, Structure, Operations and Strategy.
Learning Objectives
- Reflect on your relationship with the land and explore how UVic's Territory Acknowledgement pays respect to the Indigenous communities who are interconnected to these lands
- Identify UVic's peoples and priorities, our organizational culture, and where we sit in Canada's post-secondary landscape
- Review the complex history, context and meaning of symbols used at UVic
- Develop an awareness of post-secondary governance structures and roles at UVic, and how the financial cycle impacts our operations
- Compare elements of many of UVic's key plans and identify how they connect with the work you do
- Discover ways you can explore the campus and connect with the UVic community
Indigenous Cultural Acumen Training (ICAT): Broaden your understanding of Indigenous peoples and issues, colonialism, and education, and consider how to move forward.
What is Cultural Acumen training and why is it important? Gain a broader understanding of Indigenous peoples, issues, colonialism, and education here in Canada. Increasing Indigenous Cultural Acumen includes taking responsibility, developing skills, and changing mindsets. It involves asking ourselves, 'What am I going to do differently based on what I know now?' What will you and your unit do moving forward?
Learning Objectives
- Consider the importance of territory acknowledgement
- Learn about colonial policies and practices
- Explore ways to work across difference
- Explore ways to support Indigenous student success
Thrive in Your Team: Be an effective and reliable team member and contribute to a professional and proactive team.
Discover the essential skills and necessary mindset of being an effective team member in a professional context. Explore how you as an individual can contribute to a dynamic, engaging, and productive team and a happier work environment. Gain awareness about how our personalities infuence our roles in team dynamics. Encounter the latest research and best practices regarding team development and activities that help you reflect on the role you play in the purpose, structure, and relationships of your team.
Learning Objectives
- Describe characteristics of highly engaged teams
- Explain the importance of a shared team understanding of purpose, structure and relationships
- Recognize the importance of individual agency, responsibility, and accountability in regards to team dynamics
- Describe the qualities and contributions of individual team members that lead to positive team dynamics
Provide Excellent Service: Explore the essential elements of how to provide excellent service to the various customer groups at UVic.
A continuous focus on quality and service drives us to do things better, every day. By providing excellent service, we are able to build relationships with staff, students, faculty and the public. Every interaction provides an opportunity for us to create a positive experience for customers and strengthen how we work together.
In this workshop, you will discover the essential elements of a customer's experience and how to provide excellent service to the various customer groups at UVic. We will explore how to resolve customer service issues and how to consistently leave your customers feeling valued and heard.
Learning Objectives
- Describe the range of benefits of serving customers well
- Recognize the needs of internal and external customers at UVic and how to respond to those needs
- Create a positive experience for customers
- Strategize how to prevent and correct customer service issues
Support Student Success: Discover ways to support and connect with students and make a difference in their experience on campus.
This course is designed for employees who don't interface with students on a day-to-day basis. The course explores UVic's role in student development during their time on campus and how all employees can create an environment of support for them. We will examine the collective and individual impact employees can have on the UVic student experience and learn what resources and recommendations are available to you to refer students when needed. Create more meaning out of the work you do! Join us in this course to learn about UVic's incredible students.
Learning Objectives
- Explore UVic's role and responsibilities with regards to students and student lifecycle models
- Recognize the experience and needs of UVic students and be able to refer to services as necessary
- Visualize the role employees play in connection to and support of students at UVic
UVic Citizen Series Electives
Choose two electives (3.5 hours of learning each) from the following list or submit an alternative for consideration. At least one elective should be a course offered by EQHR.
Courses offered by the EQHR office:
- Foundations to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
- Starting the Conversation: Preventing and Responding to Sexualized Violence at UVic
- EQHR Anti-Oppression Education Program
Other elective options from the SHIFT U program:
- Interpersonal Communication
- Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
- Discover Personality Using Lumina
- Cultural Intelligence in the Workplace