Mandatory Training & Extra Workshop
TRAINING & WORKSHOP FUNDING ELIGIBILITY POLICY
TOPP KIDS provides a range of mandatory, role-specific, and voluntary professional development opportunities.
Each opportunity is funded differently depending on its purpose, alignment with an employee’s role, and eligibility for government funding streams.
This policy explains how training time is paid, how workshop costs are covered, and the expectations for scheduling and accountability.
Mandatory Trainings (Paid & Scheduled Within Contract Hours)
All full-time employees have role-specific mandatory trainings outlined in their contracts. These trainings are essential to job performance and must be completed throughout the year.
- Mandatory trainings are paid by TOPP KIDS.
- They are scheduled during regular work hours and must be arranged to maintain the employee’s maximum weekly contracted hours.
- If a mandatory training occurs during a shift (e.g., a 2-hour mid-day session), the employee’s schedule will be adjusted—such as reducing Planning/Admin time or leaving early—to ensure hours do not exceed the weekly maximum.
- All time adjustments must be reviewed and approved by a Program Support Manager before changes are made to an employee’s schedule.
Mandatory trainings may replace Planning/Admin time, ratio time, or scheduled shifts as indicated in the Funding Eligibility Chart.
Extra Workshops & External Professional Development (Unpaid Time, Costs Covered)
TOPP KIDS encourages full-time employees to pursue additional professional development beyond their
mandatory training.
- Optional workshops and external PD events are unpaid, but TOPP KIDS will cover the registration cost for any workshop or PD event approved by the Professional Development Coordinator.
- Staff must first apply for available government or agency funding.
- All educators must submit the appropriate funding form with assistance from the Professional
Development Coordinator. - If funding does not cover the full cost, TOPP KIDS covers the remaining balance.
- After every 10 approved PD opportunities attended in a school year, employees receive a $50 Visa Gift Card as recognition of their commitment to growth.
These opportunities are tracked in each employee’s personnel file, signed off by the Program Coordinator, and reset annually with a new PD tracker provided during the employee’s performance evaluation.
Alignment With Funding Eligibility Chart
The Funding Eligibility Chart outlines the payment structure for each type of training:
- Mandatory and job-required training (Onboarding, TK Mandatory Workshops, Summits, PD Days, First Aid, WHMIS) is paid by TOPP KIDS and may replace regular scheduled hours as noted.
- Voluntary workshops are unpaid, but TOPP KIDS covers the registration cost, and most are eligible for Time Release Grant funding, which is paid out once released by the government.
- Some sessions may also qualify for wage top-up programs through government initiatives.
- Employees must sign in using the method listed in the chart and keep total hours within their weekly
contract limits.
Missed Workshops & Cost Recovery
As per the Workshop Cancellation & Accountability Policy:
- Missed professional development workshops or PD opportunities costing more than $50 will result in full cost recovery charged to the employee.
- This applies when an employee fails to attend or cancels without the required notice.
Purpose of This Policy
This policy, used together with the Funding Eligibility Chart, ensures team members clearly understand:
- Which training is paid
- Which training costs are covered
- How scheduling adjustments work
- When grant funding applies
- What to expect for voluntary PD opportunities
- How accountability is managed
It also supports transparent, fair, and consistent professional development practices across all TOPP KIDS teams.
