The SmartForce initiative is the first of its kind in Canada and is made possible through an investment by Newfoundland and Labrador’s Department of Human Resources, Labour and Employment (HRLE). SmartForce is a two year pilot project that benefits:

• Every small and medium sized Business, Government Agency and Not For Profit which has most of their employees in Newfoundland and Labrador
• Every resident of Newfoundland and Labrador

Each Business and Not for Profit in Newfoundland and Labrador can use SmartForce to contribute to profitability, efficiency and employee empowerment. SmartForce will also help businesses become leaders in using social media to connect to the wider world. The CoursePark platform was developed in our Province and is already being used by 30,000 people in over 50 countries. Some benefits to organizations in Newfoundland and Labrador include:

• Access to a FREE secure and private Premium Learning Network
• Access to one of 10,000 FREE online courses on the most important workplace topics to improve their skills and career prospects
• The ability to use their Learning Network to
  A) select courses from HRLE’s library (or build their own courses)
  B) assign them to their employees
  C) track the results
• Specially designed courses to help our businesses leverage Social Media to improve their access to markets and talent, as well as courses that improve their HR skills (Coming Summer 2011)

It’s the SmartForce NL initiative – Essentially it’s free online courses, made available to the residents of Newfoundland and Labrador through a significant investment by our government.

You can sign up at:

http://www.coursepark.com/nl

Check out the press release:

http://www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2011/hrle/0309n03.htm