Gandy Associates have been instrumental in providing language training, specifically English Speaking, Writing and Leadership skills to our employees, and those of other Canadian organizations I have worked for, and they do so, with immense quality, compassion and great results that we have witnessed.
Talent Manager
I found the experience of working with you and your colleagues at Gandy very positive. You were patient and flexible with helping us to determine the most suitable approach for our learners and very responsive and diligent with logistics, changes and follow ups. Most importantly, the learners and their managers felt very positive about the experience and the increased confidence in English they developed as a result of the program.
Business Counsellor
As Director, Relationship Management for Talent Development, I work very closely with our vendor partners to ensure that the learning and development solution that we execute on is successful for the vendor, the sponsors and participants. My role is to establish success criteria, design a measurement strategy and establish expectations with the sponsors. I have had the fortunate opportunity to partner with the Gandy Associates teams for the past 4 years. We have had incredible success in every solution that we have executed on. I would have to attribute the success to several things:
- Gandy’s professional approach to every situation, conference call, meeting, etc.
- Gandy’s facilitators and approach in the classroom are of the highest quality
- Gandy’s ability to be creative and think outside the box as we continue to push for business impact results
- Gandy’s ability and flexibility to accommodate to our timelines, urgency and business criteria.
I would not hesitate to recommend the Gandy Associates team to any organization. Thank you for being such a great partner.
Director, Relationship Management
I was very lucky to meet Karen. She is incredible teacher and opened my eyes to many things I did not notice before. She impacted my life vision on many different levels and made me a better and kinder person with more concise attention to my communication skills. It did impact on my life overall.
Architectural Design
Diane was a wonderful instructor. She helped us a lot during the course to keep it interesting and provided feedback at the right time. Her facilitation skills also provided equal opportunities for all the participants. The best things about the course were the group discussions, continuous feedback and analysis by the instructor, instructor’s flexibility to work with specific scenarios and role play exercises.
Senior Manager, Quality Management and Governance
I truly enjoyed the class. Today, I had just shared some tips I learned in this class to my team , I encouraged them to use positive language when they communicate with our clients, partners and with other peers. Useful material, effective group members; excellent instructors. I had lots of fun, looked forward to join the Friday morning class each week.
Senior Manager, Enterprise Security Admin & Ops
Time spent working through the material and the interactive portions has changed the way I communicate with colleagues. I have an increased level of confidence when speaking with leadership and have obtained better results using the techniques taught in sessions.
Test Analyst
It presented opportunities to bring real work challenging situations to class to (a) get feedback from colleagues and instructor, (b) apply recommendations in the work setting, (c) report on the outcome, and (d) receive further suggestions for improvements. Raised awareness of the need to consciously and consistently apply strategies (such as active listening) and how application of those strategies contributes to professional and personal growth. Weekly sessions allowed us to practice and helped increase retention. Provided a strategy for every situation.
Senior Business Analyst
It was excellent course and it should be available to more people and more often. Very useful skills were taught and Karen was an amazing instructor. I enjoyed a few aspects of this course:
- The discussions were great; Karen checked in with everyone equally and encouraged us to find ways we utilized the skills learned
- The casual ease of the conversation made it easier to grasp the concepts
- The course material was done very well, really liked the summary cards
- The accomplishment speech was excellent practice and a very positive impact on us personally
Demand/Capacity Analyst
Great course! Really helped me identify the positive and negative things I was doing in communication. I am more aware and I believe I have improved my communication and persuasion skills. The course was well organized, and I liked the group work since I was able to interact and get feedback from the instructor and team members.
Grants Manager
The course was very valid and I can see my behavior changing. I appreciate the opportunity to participate in the course. The best thing about the course is the level of confidence the content it was able to give me.
Director, Information Security
The course was very well structured – the split in seven weeks gave me enough time to review the materials each week without interrupting my day-to-day tasks. What I liked the most of this course was our Facilitator – an excellent trainer.
PMO Manager
This course is powerful. I will admit, although I was encouraged to sign up by my manager, I did not have a strong interest. However, I’m pleased to report that I quickly changed my mind! The weekly schedule allowed us to spend one afternoon learning, then the rest of the week executing on what we had learned. I’ve struggled previously with maintaining authenticity whilst delivering difficult messages (i.e., I have to say “no” a lot in my role, and my personality is geared towards helping others). Between the instructor, the course material and the feedback from my colleagues, I received several helpful approaches. In addition, I dislike “sugar coating”, and am very direct. I found the material provided options such that I can deliver my message differently, without feeling like I’m compromising honesty. In practice, this learning works, it really does! I feel more confident and relaxed when dealing with difficult situations, and I’m extremely happy with the course outcomes. The course included homework and a deliverable; the extra work was difficult with my current schedule, but well worth the extra time. The instructor was fabulous, and created an atmosphere where we could share different perspectives, open and honest dialogue and provide each other with much needed feedback.
Senior Manager, Enterprise Security Administration
