Career Choices
As youth prepare for life after high school, it can be overwhelming to search for career information and navigate between the many resources that are available to support youth. Our Career choices program aims to create online resources to support youth in planning for post-secondary – whether that is continuing in school, or venturing out to the workplace. The virtual series will cover a broad range of possibilities, both traditional and non-traditional, reflecting the diversity of opportunities in the marketplace.
The goal of this program is to help high school students navigate the many possibilities that are available to them after high school, help them sort through online resources, and to build youth’s awareness and confidence in the skills that they already possess.
WEBINARS
Over the course of the year, we hosted 10 monthly webinars, which covered various topics to assist participants with job readiness.
Know your skills and interests
Choosing a career path can feel overwhelming, but discovering your own unique skills and interests can help point you in the right direction. By exploring areas such as extracurricular activites, volunteering, sports, personal hobbies, and favourite school subjects, our aim is to help youth match their skills and talents with a variety of interesting professions and relevant fields of study.
Speakers: Eylas Burney and Emilie Salvi.
Resumes & Cover Letters
We’ve got the guidelines and ground rules for preparing effective resumes and cover letters that can help jumpstart the job application process. By exploring important topics such as networking, resume and cover letter formatting, tailoring applications to the job posting, and emphasizing key skills and accomplishments, we’ll help youth understand how much they have to offer potential employers and how to put it all down on paper.
Speakers: Natasha Jeshani and Valerie Le.
Job Searching & Interviewing
Our goal is to empower young people to become active participants in the interview process. From job searching to interviewing, we’ll take youth through all the steps they need to take to land the job that’s right for them. By exploring important topics such as effective job searching strategies, common interview questions, the STAR method, body language and interview etiquette, as well as tips and techniques for both virtual and in-person interviews, we’ll help youth to approach their next job interviews with confidence and skill.
Speakers: Jenn Gaudette, Emma Martini and Valerie Le.
Entrepreneurship
We’ll cover key topics such as brainstorming and problem-solving, creating a business plan, marketing your business, and finding investors. In addition, we’ll take a look at the common skills and personality traits of successful entrepreneurs as well as the most important steps to take when launching a new business. Most importantly, this engaging topic will help youth explore career opportunities in business and innovation and discover if entrepreneurship is right for them.
Speakers: Christopher Thompson, Sierra Lathlin and Alessandra Amato.
Social Enterprise
We’ll take a look at businesses and entrepreneurs that know how to maximize profits so that they can find ways to give back to their communities. We’ll examine some major distinctions between traditional businesses and social enterprises by giving youth the opportunity to explore social enterprises within their own communities, across Canada, and across the globe. Our goal is to empower aspiring young entrepreneurs to identify problems and social needs within their communities and the world around them so they can find creative solutions that will benefit everyone.
Speakers: Lourdes Juan and Julie Savaria.
Gig Economy
With the recent shift towards gig work and freelance roles in the Canadian economy, youth are more interested than ever in exploring what the gig economy has to offer in terms of jump starting their careers. Our goal with this topic is to inspire youth to follow their passions and gain the confidence to start a gig of their own.
Speakers: Amanda Gibeau, Aidan Cameron and Sonya Gankina.
Trades & Apprenticeships
We’ll explore the many certified trades across a variety of provinces in Canada to help inspire students to pursue their career goals in this dynamic and growing sector of the economy. We’ll explore topics such as variations between provinces as to which trades are recognized, educational pathways to getting certified, and scholarships and financial support for youth just starting out.
Speakers: Shannon Tymosko and Lisa Ayton.
Exploring the Arts
The art industry is thriving and is a great place for dedicated, creative people to find meaningful work. With the help of Canadian artists, youth will explore different pathways to securing a career in the arts, including post-secondary education and apprenticeships.
Speakers: Sophie Smith-Dost Mohamed, Vanessa Coplan and Kayla O. Solomon.
Planning for Post-Secondary Education
Between applications, budgeting and sometimes planning a big move, starting post-secondary education can be overwhelming but we promise that it will be some of the best years of your life! This topic covers areas such as post-secondary applications, planning and budgeting, and finding a work/life balance in that busy first year.
Speakers: Julie Foisy, Kayla Comeau and Ruth Fisseha.
Online learning modules
To complement the series, we have also created a series of fee-based e-learning modules to allow youth to confidently map this next phase of life with their own customized plan. These on-demand modules provide practical step-by-step guided instruction, curated resources and worksheets covering the following topics: Identify your skills, Build your resume, Prepare for interviews, Start your enterprise, Finance post-secondary, and Post-Secondary applications.
CAREER VLOGS
At Experiences Canada, we strongly believe in the power of youth teaching youth. Our Career Choices program Youth Leaders will create a series of vlogs featuring people in a variety of promising careers. Each VLOG will run between 3-5 minutes in length and answer some basic questions about how they got into their industry, what skills and education are required, where do they see the opportunities for youth interesting in getting into this line of work today, and what are the best personalities for their position.
These vlogs will provide a starting point for youth to explore a career option that they may never would have thought of pursuing.
If you are interested in being featured in a careers VLOG, please complete this contact form.
Additional Resources
There is an abundance of information available online to assist you in mapping a career path for themselves, so much so that it can be overwhelming. Along with our Vlogs and online learning modules, we will also be collecting additional materials, that we feel will be useful for youth, and collecting them in an easy to navigate space.
If you have resources you feel might be useful for us to link to, please email communications@experiencescanada.ca
Teaching Resources
In order to support civics and coop teachers, school guidance counsellors, youth employment service agencies, and other national youth serving organizations that support youth in job readiness activities, we will also be providing lesson plans, and workshop guides to accompany each webinar.
We encourage you to view the webinars with your students, and continue the conversation in your virtual classrooms using our lesson plans and workshop facilitator guides.
Youth Leaders
Our Career Choices youth leaders are a group of dedicated young people (aged 21-30) who have been selected to act as hosts, mediators, workshop facilitators, and videographers for the duration of the series. By offering their experience, knowledge, and support skills to this online series, these youth leaders will help participants discover their unique skills and talents, and explore a variety potential career options and pathways.
Thanks to Our Sponsor
Experiences Canada is proud to partner with RBC`s Future Launch initiative – a commitment to help young Canadians prepare for a drastically changing workforce.
You can find out more about the many youth initiatives RBC supports here.
Your Social Media Persona
In the digital age we are living in, it has become more common for recruiters and employers to scan candidates’ social media and personal profiles, making it more important than ever to use these platforms responsibly and effectively. By further exploring issues such as personal privacy, media literacy, leadership, and networking, our goal is to provide youth, parents, and educators with resources and activities to ensure youth make a positive impact with their digital choices and behavior.
Speakers: Kevin Parent and Jennifer Casa-Todd.