Solway runs hands-on ChatGPT training for Calgary businesses that want their team using it as a working tool, not a search box they occasionally remember exists. Sessions run half a day or a full day, on-site in Calgary or live-virtual, for up to 20 people, and are built around your team's own workflows and software. Every session ends with something your team keeps using, whether that's a custom GPT, a skill, or a shared project. Training is eligible for Canada-Alberta Productivity Grant (CAPG) funding.

The problem this solves

Most teams that get ChatGPT access use it the same way they'd use a search engine: type a question, get an answer, close the tab. That's fine for quick questions, but it leaves most of what ChatGPT can actually do on the table, connecting to your company's own systems, remembering how your team likes things done, and running the same task the same way every time without you re-explaining it.

The fix isn't a longer list of clever prompts. It's showing your team the handful of features that turn ChatGPT from a chatbot into something closer to an assistant that already knows your business: apps, custom GPTs, skills, and projects. We call these the five foundations of ChatGPT, and this training is built around them.

Who this is for

Business teams and leaders at Calgary and Alberta organizations using or evaluating ChatGPT, including ChatGPT Team or Enterprise. No coding background required. We tailor the session to whichever functions are in the room, whether that's finance, operations, sales, or a mixed group.

What your team can do after this training

• Connect ChatGPT to SharePoint, Outlook, or Teams so it can search and summarize your team's own documents and email, not just the open internet

• Build a custom GPT grounded in your internal policies or standard procedures, so staff get a consistent, correct answer instead of asking around the office

• Turn a recurring task, like classifying expenses or drafting a type of report, into a skill that ChatGPT remembers how to do

• Use a shared project so a team working on the same initiative, like a month-end close, keeps ChatGPT's context organized instead of scattered across separate chats

• Know when to reach for a deeper thinking mode or Deep Research, and when a quick instant response is all a task needs

• Use ChatGPT directly inside Excel for formulas, cleanup, and analysis without leaving the spreadsheet

How we teach it

Our training is workflow-first. Rather than a feature tour, we build one real workflow from your team, live, in front of the room, and use it to teach the underlying skills.

The teaching thesis is simple: deterministic tools, like a calculator or an Excel formula, give you the same answer every time and should be trusted for that. Generative AI is for judgment calls: summarizing, drafting, classifying, and synthesizing information that doesn't fit a fixed rule. The best workflows combine both, using deterministic tools where reliability matters and ChatGPT where judgment does.

We also teach Solway's Goldilocks Zone Model for deciding how much of a workflow to hand off. Automating a process end to end with no human checkpoint is usually a mistake, and so is leaving everything manual because "it's not reliable enough yet." The middle path, where ChatGPT does the heavy lifting and a person reviews before anything goes out, is faster and more dependable than either extreme.

Curriculum

Module A: Foundations and safe use Deterministic versus generative tools, common misconceptions about how ChatGPT actually works, data handling, and when to verify an output instead of trusting it outright.

Module B: The five foundations, hands-on Standard chats and custom GPTs as the two interfaces, then apps and connectors, skills, and projects as the features that make ChatGPT useful for real, repeated work. Participants build at least one of these live during the session.

Module C: Build a real workflow We take one workflow from your team, usually something repetitive that currently eats real hours, and turn it into a custom GPT or skill your team keeps using after we leave.

Module D: Adoption and governance Business accounts versus personal accounts, memory and personalization settings, usage limits and model modes, and a rollout plan so the whole team benefits, not just the people in the room.

Format and logistics

• Half-day (roughly 3.5 hours) or full-day session

• Up to 20 participants

• On-site in Calgary, or live-virtual for teams anywhere in Alberta and Western Canada

• Works with ChatGPT Team, ChatGPT Enterprise, or a mixed rollout still being decided

What's included

• A short discovery intake before the session, so we know your workflows and can bring real (or realistic, non-sensitive) sample files

• Hands-on exercises built around your team's own work, not generic examples

• At least one custom GPT, skill, or project built live and left in your ChatGPT environment

• A written workflow reference your team can reuse on the next similar task

• Reference slides from the session

• Post-training office hours to work through anything that comes up once your team is using this on their own

Delivered work

We've run a two-part ChatGPT foundations series for a Calgary investment firm, covering the five foundations, a custom GPT for internal policy questions, and skill-building for repetitive data classification work.

"We were surprised by just how much we learned. Everyone walked away with a better understanding, no matter what their starting skill level was." Hashim Chawdhry, Associate Director, ICM Asset Management

Funding: this training may qualify for CAPG

The Canada-Alberta Productivity Grant (CAPG) reimburses part of what you spend on third-party training, including AI training under the program's "Digital and technological" skills category. Solway, as an independent third-party trainer, qualifies as an eligible provider.

• For existing employees: the grant covers 50% of training costs, up to $5,000 per employee per fiscal year

• For newly hired, previously unemployed Albertans: the grant covers up to 75%, up to $10,000 per employee per fiscal year

• Employers can claim up to $100,000 per fiscal year in total

What that looks like in practice, using the existing-employee rate: a team of 5 could have up to $25,000 in eligible training costs reimbursed in a year (5 x the $5,000 cap). A team of 10 could see up to $50,000 reimbursed. At 20 employees, the per-person caps add up to exactly the $100,000 annual employer limit.

Training needs to be delivered by a qualified instructor rather than self-study, which is exactly how we run these sessions. A recent update to the program also removed the old minimum-hours and certification requirements, so a half-day or full-day workshop like this one qualifies on its own. We can walk you through what documentation you'll need when we scope your training.

FAQ

Is it safe to put company information into ChatGPT? It depends on the account. ChatGPT Team and Enterprise are built to enterprise compliance standards and don't train their models on your data. Personal, free-tier accounts are the real risk, since free consumer tools can use what you type in to improve their own models. This training makes sure your team knows the difference before they start using it for real work.

Should staff use their personal ChatGPT accounts for work, or do we need business accounts? Business accounts (ChatGPT Team or Enterprise). A personal subscription isn't set up for your organization's data handling requirements, and using one for company information creates exactly the kind of risk a business account avoids.

What's the difference between a custom GPT, a project, and a skill? A custom GPT is a version of ChatGPT grounded in your own documents, good for one-to-many use, like an internal policy expert the whole team can ask questions. A project organizes ongoing, multi-step work and the files that go with it, good for a team collaborating on something like a close process or a client deal. A skill is a saved way of doing a specific recurring task. We teach all three and help you figure out which fits a given workflow.

Can ChatGPT record or transcribe our meetings? Not directly. ChatGPT can summarize a transcript you paste in or connect to, but recording and transcription typically comes from a separate tool, like your meeting platform's built-in recorder or a dedicated notetaker. We cover how to feed that transcript into ChatGPT once you have it.

Does ChatGPT work with Microsoft 365? Yes. Once connected, ChatGPT can search and summarize content from SharePoint, Outlook, and Teams, based on the same permissions your account already has. There's also a ChatGPT add-in for Excel that works directly inside your spreadsheets.

How do usage limits and model modes work? ChatGPT offers different speed and reasoning modes, generally instant, thinking, and pro. Faster modes are fine for simple tasks and use less of your usage allowance; slower, deeper modes are worth it for complex or high-stakes work. Picking the right one for the task is part of what we teach.

Does anyone on our team need to know how to code? No. Everything in this training happens in plain English. The skill we're teaching is giving ChatGPT clear context about your business, not writing anything that looks like code.

Is this training eligible for the CAPG grant? Yes, in most cases. AI training delivered by a qualified third-party instructor, like Solway, falls under CAPG's "Digital and technological" skills category. See the funding section above for the reimbursement math, and confirm your specific eligibility on the Government of Alberta's CAPG page before applying.

Does a half-day workshop meet CAPG's minimum training requirement? Yes. CAPG does not set a minimum number of training hours. An earlier version of the program required a longer commitment and formal certification, but that requirement has been removed, so a half-day or full-day ChatGPT workshop qualifies on its own.

About Solway

Solway is a Calgary-based AI strategy and engineering lab. Shaheer Tariq, Co-Founder and Principal, leads the training practice, working with Calgary and Alberta organizations to move teams from occasional AI use to workflows they actually rely on. We train on ChatGPT, Claude, and Microsoft Copilot, so our recommendation for your team is based on your stack, not on which platform we're trying to sell.

Interested in learning more? Contact us