Harper Learning

Who We Are

At Harper Learning, we’re passionate about helping purpose-driven organizations create safer, healthier, and more inclusive workplaces through impactful learning experiences.

When you work with us, you’re gaining a partner committed to the results. We are highly collaborative and:

• Work with you to define your learning strategy and build frameworks to attract and develop the best talent.
• Design custom learning solutions tailored to your specific needs and goals.
• Create engaging, impactful learning experiences that get results.
• Support you with launching the new program to facilitate buy-in from the team.
• Measure results, making adjustments as needed.

We don’t believe in ticking boxes or creating generic programs. Our clients choose us because they know they’re partnering with a team that genuinely cares about making meaningful changes in the workplace.

Accessibility is central to everything we do. We take an inclusive approach to research and design, and we rigorously test our programs for accessibility with people who have disabilities. We are committed to continually learning and improving from those with lived experiences.

We listen, we understand, and then we get to work alongside your team of experts in your field. We’re here to show what can happen when learning meets real life, and employees feel genuinely supported and included.

Why We Are Involved

I passionately believe that all people have a right to be heard and included.

Prior to starting Harper Learning in 2007, I was an employment consultant and my specialization was helping people craft employment that they love and excel at. My clients at time came with specific disabilities they needed assistance advocating for. Part of my role was to work with employers to help the client receive the accommodations they needed.

These days, I believe all people have a right to employment where they can excel and this includes people without a current disability or who choose not to self-disclose. We all have a right to belong.

Harper Learning moved into our current work developing accessible learning when we partnered several years back with our colleague, Stan Leyenhorst, and his team at Universal Access Design. We designed disability awareness training for several airports. Recently, we were able to expand on this training to create the Canadian Airports Accessibility Training that is in ~30 airports across Canada in both English and French.

For other clients, we develop courses to assist people with disabilities with gaining employment and up-skilling. We have programs we created that help employers onboard new staff in a values-focused and inclusive way. We have also created workshops and online training to help employers hire inclusively and leaders to create healthy workplaces for people with disabilities.

In other initiatives, we have several projects initiated in partnership with several people with aphasia to work on a communication support tool. These are passion projects where we use our skills to help others do what they do best.

Here to serve. Here to support. Here to learn. – Cara Johns – Founder, Harper Learning

Accessibility Initiatives

Our accessibility initiatives are around creating accessible and inclusive learning opportunities. We have been committed to this for many years, well before it was legislated in BC.

Of course, this is an ongoing learning process. We do what we can to increase accessibility and are open at all times to learning more from our clients, contractors and colleagues in the field.