Serge Bisson, College Instructor

Something Real

Travel

Professors are encouraged to attend various symposiums and conferences for professional development. These forums give us new ideas about teaching and keep us up-to-date on new developments in our areas of expertise.

We are expected to be on top of our professions because we're teaching the professionals of the future. The collège helps us by subsidizing some of the expenses involved in these training events.

Instructor's Job

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"We're in charge of the curriculum itself, of getting all the material ready, making sure the assignments are given, are corrected.

"If there's any students that are having trouble, it's our job to ensure that they have the resources available to them to make sure they're as successful as possible."

Keeping Up-to-date

For other programs, changing curriculum is a lengthy process. But with technology evolving so rapidly, we can't take a lot of time to change things.

So we're quite flexible when we want to introduce something new. We have a consulting committee of 12 people who come in from various businesses and we bounce our ideas and changes off them and then make a decision. Then we can implement them quickly to keep up to date.

Rounded Graduates

Our graduates are well-suited to small to medium size companies that can't have specialized IT people.

By the time our students graduate, they will have studied database programs, network administration, Internet programming, application programming, PC troubleshooting and operating systems troubleshooting and most importantly, they will have had real on the job experience through our work placement program.

Where I Work

Collège Universitaire de Saint-Boniface (CUSB) is part of the U of M and offers both university and college educations in the French language. There are three main departments on the university side: education, science and arts.

There are 8 programs on the collège side (l'École technique et professionnelle). Programs on the college side include tourism, IT, multimedia and business administration.

Most of the programs offer partnerships within the industry so students gain valuable work experience before they graduate.

Take It Easy

These days it's so easy to get caught up in trying to keep up with Jones'. So many people seem to want a bigger house and a bigger car. I like Manitoba because the lifestyle is simple.

My wife and I both walk to work. Our son's daycare is on my way, so I drop him off and the van stays in the yard.

We like to visit places where the cost of living is outrageous and the unemployment rate is high, but we like to live in Manitoba.

Chose Instructing

When I became an instructor, I wanted to keep some hours at my other job. I'm happy I didn't because I had taken too much ownership there and I could see my attention being dragged away from the college very easily.

I still do little contracts here and there. I help people create their PCs and I have a couple of companies that call me in for a day when they have network problems, but they know I'll only come if I have time.

Teenage Traveller

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"I went to Africa for five months. It was part of an exchange program with Canada World Youth. When you're living in Canada, there's certain expectations and we have so many freedoms here.

"Once you're able to go to a third world country and see the hardships that people live with, it really opens your eyes in that we can't take things for granted."

Outdoor Enthusiast

My wife and I have been married for five years. We have a 16 month-old son and another baby on the way. We live in Saint-Boniface and we really enjoy the outdoors.

We've hiked the west coast trail and the Mantario trail a few times. We also canoed the Bloodvein River for a couple of weeks. I'm currently building a canoe in my garage. It's coming along....slowly but surely.

It All Averages Out

Being an instructor is not a 52 week a year, 8 to 4, punch in, punch out job. Teaching semesters involve many long, busy days. But in the summertime, we don't work nearly as much.

At the end of the day, if you were to do the calculations, I think we'd be on par with everyone else and it would average out to 40 or 45 hours a week.

Wireless Classroom

We have control over our labs, where most other programs don't so we've been able to set up our own internet servers, web servers and a firewall in each of our classes.

I've also set things up so that when I'm teaching a class, I can take over any PC in the lab. Instead of students having to get up and go see what other students have on their screens, I can take over their PCs and show it on the large classroom screen.

Make It Interesting

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"We've had a lot of discussions about which language is the best to learn for beginner programmers, but the reality of the situation is, when you're learning your first 'ifs' and 'whiles', doesn't matter which language it is, it gets pretty tedious at times.

"So if you can maybe incorporate that in a game already or get an environment where they've got a real goal at the end, the better it is for the students."

Evening Review

I often work for a couple of hours in the evening. I go over my notes for the next day, review technical stuff, write a little program or check some assignments.

I also answer e-mails from my students who are at home doing their assignments and come across a question they need to ask me. Sometimes I can't get to all of their e-mails so I finish them off the next morning when I get to work.

The Real World

A few times a week, I phone old colleagues or people I've met at networking functions to find out what they're doing, what kind of database or network they're using and what kind of problems they're having.

Then I ask if I can use their stories in my classes as examples. Students can only take so much theory. They love it when you tell them what's really going on in the industry.

Open Source

As soon as you go into a brand name product, you have to look at licenses. We have a limited budget each year so we have to look for alternatives.

Since it’s a two-year diploma program and we offer a bit of everything and don’t specialize in anything, it isn’t worth our while to spend a lot of money on expensive software when open source allows us to see the same techniques for a lot less.

It’s a great educational tool for us.

Rules of Thumb

Be prepared for stressful times during exams and assignments.

Be ready to deal with different people in different situations.

Understand that things never go according to plan.

Know that you can't control what your students are going to be like.

Learn to read the students’ faces.

Work hard to earn the respect of your students.

Moonlighting

We’re only in class 12 to 20 hours a week, so there are many hours in a week that an instructor could work outside the college. We are, however, expected to spend a certain amount of time making sure our classes are up to par.

Occasionally I do outside work outside but only with permission from the administration.

The Joy of Teaching

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"It’s a very interesting profession, being a college instructor. You have students coming in at all kinds of levels of expertise, so you need to be able to manage the situation.

"But you also have the great joy of watching your students graduate, including the ones who came in knowing so little."

Connected To the Community

Since I've been here, it's been my focus to make sure that the program does what the local business environment needs it to do. I’ve made sure that our students can do the work that the community requires.

Whenever I make plans for the future, I always keep the local businesses in mind.

Good Choices

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"While doing my Computer Science degree at the University of Manitoba, I did two things that really helped me.

"One is I went into the co-op program, which gave me work placements and the second thing is whenever I had a free course I took Business Admin.

"So I had a good link between business and computer science already at that time."

Clear and Concise

To be a good instructor, you have to be articulate and you can’t be afraid of public speaking. You have to write in a clear and concise manner because you’ll be preparing assignments for your students to do at home when they don’t have your help.

Choosing Your Path

If you know you want to go in as a PC technician or do a bit of programming for a local business, something that's not research intensive, you should consider the two-year diploma first.

A lot of schools are now looking into creating a two-year diploma that can become a degree later on.

If you know you want to go into the research side of the industry, then right from square one, university would be the better option.

Check It Out

Unique Appeal

I think we offer something very unique at l'École technique et professionelle. It's a community-oriented school with excellent links to the university. Students can get a diploma at l'ÉTP, and then if they so choose, use their diploma towards a university degree.

The bilingual aspect of the college is also very special. Bilingual IT professionals are in high demand in various marketplaces around the world and l'ÉTP is well situated to provide graduates to fill those jobs.

Changing Role

Until very recently, instructors had to be experts in their domain. Today, students can find almost any information they need on the Internet - so instructors are quickly becoming 'information filters'.

In the next couple of years, instructors will have to stop asking themselves, 'What can I tell them that they don’t already know?' and start asking themselves, 'How do I help my students understand what's happening using the resources available?'

Hone Your Skills

Get some experience under your belt and then look at the training side of the industry. Start internally by training your own users and move on from there.

I know some instructors who have gone directly to teaching, but you bring so much more as an instructor if you've got experience from the real world, the world where your students will be working.

Long Term Plans

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"Long term, I'd like to finish my education degree and then I'm going to have to make a decision in a few years here, whether I keep teaching or whether I go back into the technical side.

"'Cause you need to keep up to date with what's happening. And talking to ex-colleagues is good but you've got to be into it to a certain point, and I recognize that."

Short Term Goals

Some of my short-term goals are to create more ties with local businesses and make the program better known to high school students. I also want to become a better instructor.

Job Market Info

The links below take you to federal and regional government information on employment, education, salary ranges and long range prospects for this career.

The official name for Serge's occupation is “College and Vocational Instructors” and its *NOC code is 4131.

Manitoba Job Futures

Manitoba Labour Market Information
(Select Manitoba, the Area in Manitoba, NOC code #4131, then click Search)

Human Resources Development Canada
*Each occupation has an official name and unique number called the ‘National Occupational Classification’ code or 'NOC'.

Education

Useful High School Subjects*
- English (Communication)
- Math
- Social Studies
- French

*Source: Job Futures.ca

Below are links to various programs and courses that will help you on the path to a career as a College or Vocational Instructor:

Saint Boniface
Les programmes techniques et professionnels
Faculté d'éducation

University of Manitoba
Department of Computer Science
Department of Education

University of Winnipeg
Business Computing

Red River College
Full Time Programs
(then go to 'Computer Engineering Technology')

Winnipeg Technical College
Microcomputer Systems Technician
Network Support Technician

Brandon University
Computer Science
Faculty of Education

Related Careers

Related Careers

Some related careers from Human Resources Development Canada web sites:
University Professors (NOC 4121)
Secondary School Teachers (NOC 4141)

Professional Associations

Professional Associations
The Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP)
Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS)