By Janna Steinthorson, CHRP

While their efforts to claim the annual Excalibur Canadian University Tournament in HR in March 2011 fell short of the podium, the initiative was a thorough success for four Thompson Rivers University students.  Buoyed by a $500 donation from the Central Interior Region of BC HRMA, the TRU team prepped relentlessly to face off with the 27 competing universities from across the country.  

TRU’s crew included Mary-Beth Harrison, Korah DeWalt, Ashton Burge and Shayleen Georget, with the help of Azadeh Ansari, who participated in Excalibur last year.  Prep work involved working through practical HR cases on a variety of topics two nights a week and presenting their findings to local HR professionals, who in turn provided coaching and real world feedback.  

Excalibur is an annual HR competition that tests students’ HR knowledge, presentation skills and real world situations.  All participants must be full time university students in Human Resources or a related field, including not more than 6 months’ work experience in Human Resources, two years work experience outside of HR and can only participate in the competition once.  Students compete to make the top three teams, which are rewarded with scholarships prizes.

In addition, Cali-Jo Duncan, a former Excalibur participant and BC HRMA executive member and Richard Roy, a TRU HR faculty member, have been strong supporters of the students and the team each year.  Both work diligently to arrange HR professionals for the panel to help assist the team and provide constructive feedback.

The students in the program spoke very highly of the preparation for the program and the contacts made in the process.  “I just finished mid-terms and found that I was able to use the applied knowledge from the cases and it gave me a better understanding of the HR concepts.  I even did better on my mid-terms with what I have learned so far,” says Shayleen Georget.  

The team has found the benefits of the program to be numerous including, public speaking and presentation skills, critical thinking and real world knowledge of HR policies and practices.

For more information on Excalibur visit their website at: http://www.orhri.org/excalibur/en/Accueil2010.aspx or the BC HRMA website.

Janna Steinthorson, CHRP, is a Human Resources advisor with The City of Kamloops and a member of the Central Interior Advisory Council for BC HRMA.  Janna is a generalist with over six years of progressive Human Resources experience in both unionized and non-unionized environments.