Deb O'Grady's enthusiasm for ongoing learning is a tangible thing.

Deb O'Grady A great day for Deb O'Grady when she graduated from UWO in 2003, finally finishing her "15 year degree." Sharing in her happiness are husband Al, daughter Jill and son Ben. O'Grady is always looking for opportunities and recommends smaller ventures like the Mini Medical School seminars offered at The University of Western Ontario.

There may be only two of us in the room during an interview, but there's a third entity there - her unbridled passion for continuing education. In fact, O'Grady refers to herself as "the poster child for continuing education."

Presently Deb O'Grady holds the position of human resources generalist at Gamma-Dynacare, but she started her education at Fanshawe College 25 years ago. You might recognize O'Grady's voice from radio waves of the past, as she turned that first diploma in radio broadcasting into a career that spanned many years and many stations. Doing overnights and swing shifts, you may have heard her as a disc jockey on AM980, FM96, BX93, STAR (CHUM's predecessor to BOBFM) and K104 (predecessor to the Hawk).

With mega media giants buying up local outlets, O'Grady saw the handwriting on the wall and knew that her full-time career as a mouthpiece could be nearing its end. That's when she cut back to part time radio work and went back to school . . . just one of several times she would do so.

With the support of husband Al, who "took over on the home front," handling primary care of the couples' two children - Ben and Jill (now 18 and 15, respectively) - O'Grady decided to pursue studies in human relations and landed back at Fanshawe, in a human resources management certification program, in 1996. "I've always been interested in the human element of the workplace," she explains.

Through the continuing education program at Fanshawe, O'Grady took the eight HR courses required for her certification in Human Resources Management, which got her a job in the HR department at one of Canada's largest banks. Because the department handled so much HR work from across the country and staffers were required to work varying shifts to serve both coasts, this gave O'Grady the flexibility to pursue another dream - finishing her "15-year university degree," smiles the proud grad.

A fan of everything UWO, O'Grady naturally had chosen Western in 1988 when she started taking a couple of classes at a time, while still working as a radio announcer. After finishing her HR certification, she decided to also finish a Bachelor's degree that furthered her knowledge of human resource issues. None of the regular degree programs suited her, so she approached the counseling office about obtaining a Cross Disciplinary Degree. Already a student with a good GPA, O'Grady was a sound candidate for such a degree. Her Cross Disciplinary Degree is in Business and Labour Studies.

As for most students, money was an issue for O'Grady - but she made a discovery that nullified stress on that front. Revenue Canada has a Life Long Learner program that allows one to take money from Registered Retirement Savings Programs - without paying the income tax - to pay tuition. (See fact box at bottom.) One of the stipulations of this program is that the person be registered as a full-time student. O'Grady wasn't able to quit her full-time job, but with its flexible hours, she was able to take morning or afternoon classes around swing shifts. "On-line and night courses are also instrumental in helping anyone who is working full time and going to school full time," she advises.

More recently O'Grady has obtained certified human resources designation from the Canadian Human Resource Professionals Association (CHRP). This is a combination of courses and a national knowledge exam that one must pass to be certified. Then one must take ongoing professional development courses to recertify every three years. As one might expect, O'Grady is already well over the maximum needed to recertify and is years ahead of schedule in this process.

Al O'Grady also holds a degree from Western that has allowed him to advance in his career and lead to professional opportunities in Toronto. The couple's love of learning seems to have rubbed off on the kids, as Ben plans to attend college to become a funeral director and Jill, a French immersion student, is enthusiastically looking forward to university.

Will this be the end of her continuing education? Not on your life, says O'Grady with a smile. She's always looking for opportunities and recommends smaller ventures like the Mini Medical School seminars offered at The University of Western Ontario.

For another free avenue to continuous learning, O'Grady recommends iTunes. "You can download podcasts of lectures from all the major universities around the world. I listened to an entire series from a psych class from the University of California," she explains.

She doesn't rule out taking more certification or degree programs, either. Because for O'Grady - and folks like her - life is a learning process.

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LIFELONG LEARNING PLAN

Rev Can offers a creative way to pay your tuition for continuing education. Tuition money can be removed from your RRSPs, up to $10,000 at a time, to a total maximum of $20,000. Spouses and partners can also withdraw money from an RRSP to pay for the other's tuition, but can not for a child or another relative. Amounts withdrawn to pay tuition are not included as taxable income for that year. Monies must be paid back to the RRSP, so as not to incur income tax, over a period of 10 years.

You must be a Canadian Resident enrolled as a full-time student in a qualifying program at a college or university. If you're not sure if the program or institution you're interested in qualifies, call Revenue Canada's general inquiry line at 1-800-959-8281.

For RRSP owners who want to continue their education, this is a solid way to do so. Deb O'Grady says she wouldn't have been able to finish her degree without this kind of doable financial help, as she didn't qualify for other types of financial aid.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca (see link)

WEB: www.cra.gc.ca