A4 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday September 13, 2000 Unemployed urged to consider consulting Wayne Lewis says his free course has an 8 0 % success rate in changing career focus o f those seeking work By Mary Collett SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER If you are in between jobs, currently collecting employment insurance bene fits, or a recent victim of company down sizing, you might consider a career as an independent consultant. The idea is not that far fetched. Just ask Wayne Lewis who has helped hundreds of unemployed people become independent consultants. Lewis is the facilitator and coordina tor of "Consulting as a Career Option," a program scheduled to begin Sept. 25th, at the Knight's of Columbus Hall, 1494 Wallace St. The program will run Monday to Friday, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. for six weeks, requiring a commitment of 130 hours. "Consulting as a Career Option" is an employment assistance service based on practical seminars and individual/group coaching sessions. It is offered by Wayne Lewis & Associates, delivered by Essential Communications Ltd., and funded by Human Resources Development Canada. But Lewis cautioned that the program is not for everyone. "We expect applicants to already have a background and some technical expertise in their designated specialty for a potential consulting service. For that reason, it is not geared to recent college or university graduates just starting out," he noted. "Rather, it is designed for peo ple who now want to utilize their prior work experience as independent consul tants." Within these margins however, lies a broad range of diversity. "We've assisted everyone from wed ding and personal fitness consultants, to corporate executives, who are accus tomed to advising companies at a strate gic level, w ith a wide variety in between," he said. The 30-day program consists of 26 different workshops conducted by a comprehensive mix of professionals. All of the instructors are independent con sultants themselves, who lead seminars in their individual realms of expertise such as marketing, market research, sales, negotiations, law, business organi zation, bookkeeping, taxation, personali ty assessment, and self-development. In addition to the group sessions, there is a four-hour period of one-on-one coach ing. According to Lewis, the program per forms several functions, beginning with helping participants decide if consulting is a career they genuinely want to pursue. If so, the program will provide the skills necessary to launch an independent con sulting business starting with the initial product development and sales, to navi gating the murky waters of the taxation system at year-end, while covering all Beginning of Season Special FU RN A CES: BTUH: 5 0 .0 0 0 7 5 .0 0 0 1 0 0 .0 0 0 1 2 5 .0 0 0 1 5 0 .0 0 0 Glove' s sale to help brain tumour research P r i c e fro m :* $ 1 4 0 0 .0 0 $ 1 4 5 0 .0 0 $ 1 5 5 0 .0 0 $ 1 7 0 0 .0 0 $ 1 9 5 0 .0 0 (Continued from page A1) him to get Tiger's autograph for me, and he said `we.don't do autographs.. . but I can do better.'" said Arcand. "I had gone up to him and begged, explaining what my gloves filled with autographs were for, explaining the money from the silent auction would go to research funded by Brainchild." At this point, the caddy reached into Wood's golf bag, pulled up the white glove he wore to win the Open, and handed it to Arcand. Her immediate reaction was to be "suddenly overcome by this beautiful feeling, that I had been touched by an angel." She allowed two men standing beside her to handle the glove, "and they become my bodyguards" as she later left Glen Abbey. "The crowd went crazy when he gave me the glove and said `give it to Fully installed. Taxes included... WINTER SERVICE SPECIAL: $55.00 Flow-Through Hum idifiers from $304 including tax & installation m am rnm mm W arranty: Electrical Air Cleaners from $585 including tax & installation AirTemp Heating &Air Conditioning 1 7 6 R iv e r O a k s B lv d . W e st · 20 yrs. on heal exchange · 5 yrs. on all other parts · 2 yrs. labour 24 Hr. Emergency Hearing Service (9 0 5 ) 6 1 6 -2 8 2 1 O a k v ille (9 0 5 ) 3 3 7 -9 3 4 4 'O f f e r e n d s O c to b e r 1 ,2 0 0 0 . 'P r i c e s m a y v a r y s u b je c t to a p p lic a t io n . me, give it to me,' but the caddy said `no, it's is for this woman' pointing at me." said Arcand. A lawyer standing next to Arcand offered to write out a legal document swearing to the authenticity of the glove, and collected 15 signatures from bystanders. The first Rigatoni Dinner raised $34,500, the second raised $75,000. All of the money raised goes to the Arthur & Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre, headed by neurosurgeon Dr. James Rutka, at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Established about a year ago, the facility is Canada's first brain tumour research centre, funded with a $5 million donation from Arthur and Sonia Labatt. For information about Brainchild, to or donate items to the silent auction, or find out about tickets for the third annu al Rigatoni Dinner, call Kathy Douthart at 847-2179. Wayne Lewis: Consulting riding the wave o f the new economy the interim subjects, issues and concerns. Lewis is justifiably proud of the pro gram's track record. "We run at about an 80% success rate, which means that four months after com pletion, 80% of the participants either have a corporate job, long or short-term contracts, or have started their own con sulting company and are in the process of obtaining or servicing clients," he said. "They are fairly evenly divided among each of these three categories." "Consulting as a Career Option" is offered free of charge to all qualified applicants. It has been in existence since 1992. Lewis, an independent consultant for the past 10 years, has administered the program in Brampton since 1999 and during that time more than 200 people have passed through it. He emphasized that participants must truly be in transition. "This program is for those currently unemployed who are looking for the next step, and are prepared to do the work to raise their skills up to that neces sary level in the marketplace", he explained. The workshops take a sophisticated approach, focusing on the individual as an intellectual property-how to maxi mize existing talents to travel down the road to self-directed success. "It's about helping people to help themselves," said Lewis. "We believe in people's abilities more than they do themselves, and we want to show them how to access those abilities, tap previ ously untapped resources, in order to ful fill their own dreams." The program will run four times between now and April 2001. The dead line for applications to the upcoming ses sion is Sept. 23rd. There will be two orientation periods held on Sept. 14th and 21st at 9:30 a.m. at the Knights of Columbus Hall. The orientation consists of a personal inter view to determine eligibility and how well the client and program fit each other. All applicants must complete an orientation as a prerequisite to the pro gram. 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