#Back-to-school – learning about the Canadian workplace

In her latest blog, Racquel Sevilla, Director, Immigrant Employment Initiatives, TRIEC, talks about the importance of workplace communication for skilled immigrants and the TRIEC Campus e-learning resources that can help them acquire these skills.

Back-to-school does not have to be just for children and young adults. We can all benefit from learning something new that could be helpful in our work. Thanks to virtual classroom options like e-learning platforms, “back-to-school” can be just a click away.

Newcomers bring a wealth of talent and experience to the Toronto region, but can benefit from insights into the Canadian workplace – and workplace communication is a good place to start. The TRIEC Campus platform offers many resources to help skilled immigrants thrive and contribute even more effectively to the success of their organization.

Below are three easy steps, guided by TRIEC Campus resources, through which newcomers can develop their cross-cultural communication skills

• Recognize how culture influences your behavior and interactions: Culture plays an important role in shaping behaviour, preferences and expectations of individuals. The e-learning resource on Understanding Cultural Competence helps you be more aware of cultural differences among individuals and develop cross-cultural skills.
• Build even more effective workplace interactions: Culture also influences work styles, teamwork and rapport among colleagues. The module on Culture and Workplace Interactions can help you build effective workplace relationships in culturally competent ways so you will thrive in a diverse environment.
• Develop strategies to address workplace conflict: Misunderstandings that arise in the workplace may be culturally based. The Addressing Workplace Conflict e-learning resource will help you identify these types of situations and how to address them.

TRIEC Campus offers several other resources to help skilled immigrants contribute to, and lead and manage culturally diverse teams more effectively. You can visit our website to learn more about what we offer and how you can benefit.

All e-learning modules and workshops on the TRIEC Campus are free. Simply create an account to login and start learning!