How it works
The School of Graduate Studies (SGS) professional development programs are offered for free to current graduate students to complement their academic program. Our suite of workshops, events, experiential learning opportunities and resources support the academic and professional success of our students.
Policies
SGS professional development programs are free for eligible participants. However, when you register, you commit to attend and actively participate. Some of our programs do have a non-attendance penalty (see details below).
SGS professional development training programs are available to:
Current Concordia graduate students enrolled in a masters, doctoral, diploma or certificate program
New students who have accepted their offer of admission to a Concordia graduate program
Recent Concordia graduates up to one year after they have completed their graduate program
Current Concordia postdoctoral researchers
Visiting students enrolled in graduate courses at Concordia
Students on a leave of absence, undergraduate students, staff and faculty are not eligible. Similar programming is offered to undergraduate students though the FutureBound program.
We expect students who register for one of our trainings to be respectful to our trainers and fellow students by actively participating. If you cannot attend a training, you must drop it prior to the registration deadline. This allows us to enroll other students and advise the trainer.
After four non-attendances, you will be automatically unregistered from all future workshops and barred from registering for new workshops.
Our longer training courses (over five hours) have a financial penalty for non-attendance. This fee is charged to the student's account if they fail to attend or drop the training prior to the registration deadline. The amount of this fee and the registration deadline will be listed on the specific training’s webpage description and registration emails.
For webinars, attendance is recorded by log-in and log-off times for the Zoom meeting. For in-person workshops, you will be checked in and out by our workshop host. If the instructor sets mandatory activities to be completed outside of the class time, these count towards the attendance requirement.
Important: To be considered "attended" and to avoid the non-attendance fees, you must be present for at least 85 per cent of the workshop and complete any mandatory activities.
A registration deadline is listed on each training’s description — this is the final date to register or drop that specific training. If you cannot attend the training, you must drop it before the registration deadline to avoid receiving a non-attendance penalty.
You cannot register for a training after the registration deadline. If a spot is still available, you can contact us to ask for a late registration. Remember to include your student number, the workshop code, and date.
You are expected to arrive or login prior to the start of the training.
You may not be admitted into the webinar or classroom if you arrive more than five minutes after the scheduled start time.
When a training is full, you may register for a waitlist. Should a space become available, waitlisted students will be automatically registered and notified. If you no longer wish to be on a waitlist, you should remove yourself by signing into the SGS Graduate professional development portal.
To create a safe classroom where participants are comfortable sharing their experience, and to protect the copyright of our materials, we do not record our webinars, unless otherwise stated at the beginning of the webinar. Similarly, participants are not permitted to record in-person workshops or screen-record our webinars.
If you have accessibility needs that require you to have a recording, please contact us to discuss how we can accommodate your request. For most of our offerings, we share PowerPoint slides and handouts after the workshop.
We reserve the right to cancel any training due to insufficient registration.
Registration
How to register/join waitlist for a workshop
- Locate the workshop you wish to register for on the workshops page and open the description page.
- Click on the blue button (top right) titled "Sign in to register/waitlist." If you do not see this button it is because registration is not open yet for this specific workshop or the registration deadline has passed.
- You will be prompted to sign-in to the SGS Graduate professional development portal. You must sign in with your Concordia student netname and password. Employee netname will not work.
- Once your student status has authenticated, you will be shown a prefilled registration/waitlist form with our registration terms. Review and agree to our terms, then submit the form.
- You should receive an email confirmation of your registration.
- Remember to add the event to your personal calendar.
- If you were added to the waitlist, you will be automatically enrolled if a spot becomes available before the registration deadline. If you are automatically enrolled, you will receive another email confirming your enrolment. Should you no longer be able to attend, you must drop the workshop (see instructions below).
Tips
If you are receiving a registration error:
- Make sure you have deleted the cache on your browser.
- Try to log in through private/incognito mode in your preferred browser.
- Make sure you are logged into your STUDENT Concordia account.
- Contact us if the issue persists.
How to drop a workshop
Dropping a workshop is only possible in advance of the registration deadline listed on the workshop’s description.
- Sign in to the SGS Graduate professional development portal with your Concordia student netname and password.
- Click on “GradProSkills registrations”.
- Scroll down to the workshop you wish to drop and click “unregister”.
- You should receive an email confirmation that you have unregistered.
- Remember to remove the event from your personal calendar.
If you can not attend a workshop for a valid reason and you are past the registration deadline, please email us with your explanation. Remember to include your full name, student ID number as well as the workshop code and date.
Record of participation
SGS provides participants with a record of participation for graduate professional development trainings. The SGS Graduate Professional Development record can be included in annual progress reviews with your Graduate Program Director or supervisor, shown to a professor who requires proof that you have participated in a workshop and included in funding or employment applications.
You can access your record of participation anytime in the SGS Graduate Professional Development portal. This record will only have workshops completed after May 2022. To request a revised version including workshops you completed before May 2022, please contact us.
You can also download a record of your participation prior to May 2022 in your Student Centre, under professional development, unofficial transcripts.
If you require a certified version of your graduate professional development record, please contact us.
Frequently asked questions
First you must register for the workshop before the registration deadline.
Your registration confirmation email and reminder email include the zoom link or classroom location. These emails are sent to the email address you have on file in your Student Centre.
You must login to our online classroom using the name on your student account to be counted as attended. Please note, it is possible that our instructional email is filtered to your spam/promotion folder.
Please take note that some workshops are accompanied by a Moodle site or additional preparatory tasks. These will be explained in the reminder email.
Instructions are included in our confirmation and reminder emails. Common reasons for not receiving these emails include:
- Incomplete registration: Confirm that the workshop is in your GradProSkills portal.
- Filtered into your spam/promotional folder: Webinar instructions are sent by gradproskills@concordia.ca. Please ensure this address is added to your safe sender list.
- Wrong email: Webinar instructions are sent to the email you have identified as your primary email in your Student Centre. Please confirm you are checking the correct email account.
If you are still unable to locate the webinar instructions, please contact us.
Please contact us and ensure you include your name, student ID, workshop code and a brief description of your issue.
You can view the upcoming workshops for which you are registered in your SGS Graduate professional development portal.
Yes, you will receive a drop deadline reminder email 24 hours before the workshop’s registration deadline and a second reminder email 24 hours before the workshop start time.
The minimum participation requirement of 85 per cent must be met to avoid the non-attendance fee. Multi-meeting workshops may have mandatory activities completed outside of meetings. Estimated time for completing mandatory activities are weighted into the attendance calculation.
For every non-attendance recorded on your file, you will receive a notification email from us after the workshop is completed. The non-attendance fee will be charged to your student account at the end of the term.
For most of our workshops, we share PowerPoint slides and handouts after the workshop.
We love hearing your suggestions. Send us your ideas using our online suggestions box.
If you have been barred from attending and registering for future workshop due to non-attendance, please contact us to review your situation.
Please contact us with your accessibility needs once you register for a workshop so that we can make arrangements to facilitate your participation. We will need your student ID, the title and date of the training, and a brief description of the accommodation you require.
