Kelly Lalonde never seems to stray very far from the
top.
She earned one of the highest scores across Canada on the Certified
Human Resources Knowledge Examination, the first of two tests leading
to a Certified Human Resources Professional designation.
And when she graduated from George Brown College's Human Resources
Management program, she tied for highest grade point average and as
a result, earned a placement in the college's human resources
department, which helped to kick-start her career in the field.
Kelly now works as an HRIS administrator for the Dominion of Canada
General Insurance Company. There, she handles data entry for the human
resources department, sets up new employees for the company and handles
benefits and pensions.
"There are so many different aspects of (HR) and different areas
to get into. There's a lot of opportunity to move around," she
says.
The eight-month program at George Brown, she says, opened up that world
to her.
She graduated from the University of Toronto with a computer engineering
degree and landed a job at IBM as a programmer but she
felt something was missing - the opportunity to work
more closely with people.
So she decided to enrol in the postgraduate program at George Brown
for that very reason and says the certificate opened up her options.
"George Brown was very supportive. I had two teachers in particular
who were both excellent - Angie Gorassi and Miles Mosher - they
were really great teachers and very generous with their time."
Her professors acted as employment references and passed on job opportunities
to the students which proved beneficial. She says the professors were
very approachable and the small class size gave them more time to answer
their students' questions.
Kelly and a fellow classmate were both awarded a one-month placement
with George Brown's human resources department in recognition
of their academic success. She says the placement was helpful in getting
her feet wet in the field as they worked on a little bit of everything
from designing interview questions to writing job descriptions.
"I thought it was a really great idea for an award, to give you
a placement instead of money because it gives you experience," she
says, adding her time was put to good use as the college has more than
1,200 full-time employees. "We were given tasks from different
areas of HR to get a variety of experience."
She adds that she couldn't have done so well on the Certified
Human Resources Knowledge exam without the help of the program.
"It validated that going to George Brown and doing the program
was the right thing to do."
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George Brown Graduates...
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