Blog » trades training

The Importance of Whole House Energy Retrofits in Canada

Shawna HendersonOctober 20, 2023

As the demand for housing continues to grow, it is more important than ever to prioritize energy efficiency and sustainability in residential construction and renovation. Whole house energy retrofits play a crucial role in meeting these goals, while also addressing the need for resiliency in the face of climate change and upcoming regulatory changes.

This Must Be The Place, Season 3: Another 18 Episodes of BS*

Shawna HendersonJuly 06, 2022

Hard to believe, but 7 July is the launch of Season Three of This Must Be the Place: The Building Science podcast! With 36 great episodes under our belt, we decided to change things up a bit for this season. Our next 18 episodes will be broken into three themes,...

The Value of Continuing Education for the Homebuilding Industry

Shawna HendersonMay 03, 2016

Shawna wrote about the value of continuing education. The article was featured in Tarion's latest 'Breaking Ground newsletter. Posted here for all to read! Competency training and continuing education/professional development are the things that fulfill Blue House Energy's mission to help build industry capacity. Gaps in training and knowledge have...

New Ontario Builders: Deadlines Are Sneaking Up!

Shawna HendersonApril 21, 2016

If you are a new builder/vendor who registered with Tarion after September 2015, your registration renewal is based on proving you have completed competency training in 7 areas. If you haven't started on this educational process, your time is running out! The competencies must be achieved by their annual renewal...

7 Areas of Business All Builders Need to be Successful

Shawna HendersonMarch 24, 2016

Builders need to be good on the tools. But they also need to know about construction technology and building science, building codes, have a certain level of business savvy, know about project management, the legal issues that affect their business, and they also need to cultivate mad customer service skillz....

The Three Videos BC Builders Need to Watch!

Shawna HendersonMarch 23, 2016

As of October 2015, the HPO beefed up the licensing process for builders. New applicants must meet certain competency requirements and existing builders will have to hit a level of continuing professional development (CPD) credits to maintain their good standing. The new requirements are being phased in over a 15...

How to Say What A Job Does, Part 1

Shawna HendersonMarch 08, 2016

One of the best ways to methodically say what the job does is to use a process called Job Task Analysis (JTA). Job Task Analysis (JTA) is not only used to create a training program, but it is also used to create accurate and valid job descriptions. Because JTA defines the required knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) for job performance, it is often the basis of a checklist of mandatory demonstrated requirements for recruiting.

Competency-based Training Levels Explained

Shawna HendersonMarch 01, 2016

Competency-based training is learner‑focused, and lends itself to independent study, allowing learners to study at their own pace, reviewing or practising challenging learning outcomes as they need, and moving quickly through the competencies in which they are more adept. In an earlier post, the four levels of complexity were outlined. These levels measure the student’s depth of knowledge.

All Quiet on the Eastern Coast

Shawna HendersonNovember 02, 2015

What have we been doing for the past six months? We've been busy. Too busy. Insanely busy. To busy to even write a blog post. Nose to the grindstone, head down, fingers to the bone. Meeting monster deadlines!!! Developing new courses!!! And we're nearly ready to let 'em loose on...

Feedback is Good

Shawna HendersonNovember 27, 2014

It's always gratifying to hear that you're doing good things --  Jon Eakes did an article on web-based learning for trades in the November issue of the Canadian Home Builder Magazine that talks about the long-recognized need for more trades training in building science and energy efficiency measures that relates...

A deeper discussion of deeper energy efficiency measures

Shawna HendersonSeptember 25, 20142 comments

    Here's a good read from Nate Adams from Energy Smart Ohio, on problems associated with energy efficiency programs, single-action bias and low-hanging fruit. It comes with the above GREAT graph showing the fallacy of diminishing returns on energy efficiency measures. The red line indicates what we think happens...

Explaining Concepts without Using Your Hands.

Shawna HendersonSeptember 11, 2014

There's a fine line to walk between simplifying information and dumbing it down so that it's useless. Concepts need to be understood. That's the challenge for anyone in training, but especially so for on-demand training, where there is no direct contact between a learner and the trainer. In face-to-face situations,...

Producing online training

Shawna HendersonJune 06, 2014

We've been in the depths of production of our own courses for several months now, and we are now working with a few clients on some custom courses. We've ironed out a lot of the kinks along the way. Key to a successful and on-time deliverable? A strong project manager...

Out of the Classroom and Into the Box

Shawna HendersonMay 20, 2014

We're pleased to be presenting at a free webinar hosted by BPI on online learning systems that support building science and home performance training. We're in a line up with: Chris Compton, HVACRedu.netDarrel Tenter, Saturn Resource ManagementDoug Donovan, Interplay LearningRyan Bennett, Everblue From BPI: This webinar will introduce several on-line...

Why we need good training in building science

Shawna HendersonMarch 18, 2014

There are lots of horror stories out there about mold, rot, stink, decay, health problems and even death associated with energy efficiency measures and airtight houses. Most of them come from the early days of 'live' experiments where good things were done, with all the right intentions but only half of the concept was in place...house-as-a-system was not the by-word of the late 70s/early 80s homebuilding/renovating world. And in many instances where new horror stories appear, it's pretty obvious to those who are conversant in building science that 'house-as-a-system' is ***still*** not the by-word of the homebuilding/renovating world.X