Essential Skills 200

To reinforce your learning and support the course content, our courses integrate videos from industry experts, industry relevant examples, interactive activities and knowledge check questions. You will also be provided with a glossary and additional resources to further support your learning.

Below is an overview of the courses required for this certificate.

1. Essential Skills Pre-Assessment 

This assessment is a metric to measure knowledge and skills gain upon completion of the Essential Skills Certificate Program. Your score has no affect on your progress in or completion of the program.

2. Technical Writing Essentials

In technical writing, the ability to communication information and messages clearly to your reader is often the difference between the failure and success of a project. Having the ability to convey detailed, complex information in a way that is easily understood by many different audiences is a critically important skill in certain industries. Being a proficient technical writer requires a combination of skill, logic and imagination. Good writers inform, educate and document their work. This course will help you to further develop your essential technical writing skills, so you are able to convey clear, concise messages tailored to your audience.

Topics include:

1. The Importance of Writing Well for Environmental Professionals
2. Identifying and Understanding your Reader
3. Choosing the Right Document for the Right Purpose
4. Designing and Structuring a Document for your Reader
5. Reviewing and Revising Documents
6. Document References, Appendices, and Disclaimers

3. Project Management Essentials 

Being a successful project manager requires strong technical and essential soft skills. Every day you are expected to demonstrate these sills to ensure projects are organized, well-managed, and meeting client expectations. The course follows a real-life project scenario and uses practical exercises, resources, and templates to prepare learners for the successful leadership and execution of their next project.

Topics include:

1. Initiation – The Project Charter and Project Governance
2. Planning – Scope, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), Roles and Responsibilities, Risk, Budget, and Communication Plans, Project Plan Approval
3. Getting Organized – PM Technology Tools, Effective Filing, Project Management Templates
4. Execution, Monitoring, and Controlling – Recruiting the Team, Scope Creep and Issues, Schedules and Plans, Communication
5. Close Out – Administrative Tasks, Lessons Learn, Releasing the Team
6. Understanding Your Work Environment – Company Culture
7. Leading Your Team – Establishing Trust, Delegating Tasks, Accountability, Time Management and Meeting Management, Micromanaging
8. Communicating with Your Team

4. Communication Essentials: Fundamentals of Environmental Consulting

Communicating with multiple stakeholders requires the ability to collaborate and coordinate with many players such as your employer, your clients, regulators and contractors. This course gives you the opportunity to learn about your role as a consultant, practice key skills that you will need to succeed in this role and stay safe in this process.

Topics include:

1. Fundamentals of Consulting
2. Working for Your Employer
3. Working with Clients
4. Working with Contractors
5. Working with Regulators
6. Staying Safe

5. Navigating Canadian Environmental Law 

Environmental law is a vast and complicated domain and as an Environmental Professional, you interact with laws and regulations every day. Developed by Canadian Environmental Experts, this course, is designed to give you a solid foundation in key public and private laws as well as an understanding of legal concepts that will help keep you and your client mitigate risks.

Topics include:

1. The Big Picture: The Canadian Legal Context
2. Jurisdictions
3. Focusing Events
4. Key Laws
5. Using Environmental Laws
6. Your Roles and Responsibilities
7. Working with Regulators

Please note: The contents of this course are intended for general educational purposes and do not replace the advice of a lawyer. You should always check current and relevant laws before acting on your knowledge, as they are constantly changing.

6. Essential Skills Post-Assessment 

This assessment is a metric to measure knowledge and skills gain upon completion of the Essential Skills Certificate Program. Your score has no affect on your progress in or completion of the program.

There are no set enrolment dates, so you can start this on-demand training program at any time. Once you’ve purchased the program, you’ll have six months of full program access.

This is an online, self-directed training program. Each individual course allows you to learn practical skills through expert videos, real-life scenarios, workbooks and more.

If you have any questions while moving through the courses, you can send them to training@eco.ca and someone will get back to you within 2-3 business days.

You’ll receive a formal Certificate of Completion upon completing all of the required courses and evaluations. This certificate also counts towards professional development credits for EP Certification.

All of your learning materials are included, so you don’t need to buy anything extra.

Depending on the learner, each course can take up to five hours to complete, therefore the entire certificate will take up to 20 hours total.

If you are an EPt, EP, EP Auditor, ECO+ PRO or ECO+ Enterprise member, you receive a discount on our online training courses. To retrieve your discount code, that can be applied at checkout, you must:

1. Login to your ECO Account by clicking here >>
2. Click on your member tab “My Certification” or “ECO +”
3. Locate the applicable discount code
   • Under the “EP Member Discounts” button of the “My Certification” tab
   • Under the “Training & Webinars Discounts” section
4. Enter code on purchase page to receive your discount