THE STUDENT: Darlene Samer, Whistler, B.C.

LAST TIME IN A CLASSROOM: 1996, BSc in kinesiology and biology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ont.

CURRENT COURSE OF STUDY: MA in leadership and training, Royal Roads University, Victoria

LENGTH OF PROGRAM: 2 years

COST: $11,000

SAMPLE COURSES: Classic studies of leadership in organizations; facilitating learning for organizational change

Career options are limited in a small town, as Darlene Samer discovered when she moved to Whistler, B.C., to be with her now- husband, a municipal worker she met there while on vacation. "I remember my sister saying, 'You won't make it in Whistler with the goals you've set.' But I thought, There's got to be a way." Two years ago, she was running health and wellness programs and working at a medical clinic, feeling unchallenged. Her solution: go back to school in hopes that more education would mean more job opportunities.

She almost went the MBA route before deciding on something that focussed more on people and less on number- crunching. She settled on Royal Roads' MA in leadership and training. Students do most of the work online -- making presentations in chat rooms and e-mailing assignments -- and spend two month-long residencies on campus. The first day was tense for 30- year-old Samer. Until she pulled into the university parking lot, she was excited. "Then I saw a lady with gray hair unpacking her bags, and I thought, 'This is not for me -- there are old people here.' I thought everyone would be young." Samer felt intimidated. As one of the youngest students in the class of 53, she thought her relative lack of life and work experience would isolate her. But she soon realized she could learn a lot from her classmates. In fact, the experience gave her the strength to create her own consulting practice, Leadershape, which merges her new leadership skills with her background in wellness initiatives.

"If you want a consultant to come in and do all the work, there are lots of them out there. But you can hire me and we'll take stretch breaks and eat healthy meals and hydrate while determining your new vision-value-mission statement." When she graduates next spring, Samer wants to capitalize on living in Whistler, a popular, international conference destination, by offering leadership seminars to corporate visitors. "There are great opportunities here that I overlooked because I thought consultants had to live in big cities," she says. "But now, I can have the world come to me."

 

THE STUDENT: Bill Collard, Paisley, Ont.

LAST TIME IN A CLASSROOM: 1992, diploma in law and security administration, Mohawk College, Hamilton, Ont.

CURRENT COURSE OF STUDY: Computer upgrading, CCS-Job Skills College, Owen Sound, Ont.

LENGTH OF PROGRAM: 15 weeks

COST: $4,500

SAMPLE COURSES: Internet: a beginner's guide; Excel 2002: working with files; PowerPoint 2002: showing slides

Bill Collard hadn't touched a computer before this spring, much less depended on one for his livelihood. But that changed in February 2001, when the 31-year-old was injured on the job.

A shop worker for a trucking company, Collard was moving trailers one icy day when he slipped, rupturing a disc in his lower back. After a year of tests, Ontario's Workplace Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB) told him he'd never be able to return to his job. "I would love to go back to work to- morrow. It's a great company. It must be -- I've worked there since I was 15," says Collard. Because of his new physical limitations -- the WSIB says he can't lift or push anything heavier than 20 pounds, a big adjustment for a man who routinely unpacked tractor trailers -- and because it's unlikely his condition will ever improve, Collard had to find alternative employment.

His WSIB worker suggested he pump gas, but Collard set his sights on a diploma in agriculture from the University of Guelph, which will help him land a job in agricultural sales. "My parents were farmers, my grandparents were farmers, and most of my friends are farmers, so it's in my blood," he says. "My job in the future will be selling something to farmers: equipment or seed or spray or something." Before beginning the program this month, he had to gain computer skills at a retraining centre near his home.

His first assignment: learning to type properly. "When I started, I could pick and peck about 15 words a minute, and now I can type 27 maybe," he says. "It's respectable, but by no means good. I have big hands and big fingers, and they're good for tightening nuts and bolts, but they're by no means dextrous when it comes to typing." After that, he was introduced to a variety of software. Although Excel was the most challenging, Collard says it will be most useful, unlike PowerPoint, for which he had little patience. "I'm not going to be making presentations to farmers like that. Most of the equipment bought and sold in this part of the country is done standing beside the old one."