Book Club
Alternative Resumes
for the young and creative!
Michael G. Howard, 2004
ISBN 0-9737024-0-0
mghbc@shaw.ca
Alternative Resumes
for the young and creative!
Michael G. Howard, 2004
ISBN 0-9737024-0-0
mghbc@shaw.ca
By Sherry Knight
Isn’t the world of learning a wonderful place today? Without leaving your home you can continue to upgrade your skills – even in your pyjamas if you prefer!
The New “Projet Personnel d’Orientation” Course
Five years ago, the Quebec Ministry of Education decided to remove the formal course “Career Choice Training” (éducation au choix de carrière) from the secondary school curriculum and to implement the “Guidance Oriented School” (approche orientante), a more flexible approach that involves teachers and professionals who are interested in organizing activities or making links between a school subject, a profession, the job market and career development.
Advanced Facilitation Strategies
Ingrid Bens
John Wiley & Sons, July 2005
ISBN: 0787977306
Opportunities 2005 Conference, Ontario Network of Employment Skills Training Projects – ONESTEP and Ontario Alliance of Career Development Practitioners – OACDP, Richmond Hill ON. November 21 – 23, 2005
National Supported Employment Conference, National Supported Employment Conference Canadian Association for Supported Employment, Saskatoon SK. November 23 – 25, 2005
NBCDAG Annual Forum: “Making Connections: Energize Your Future! “, New Brunswick Career Development Action Group – NBCDAG, Frederiction, NB. November 29 – 30, 2005
CACEE Ontario Regional Conference: Leading Our Future, Canadian Association of Career Educators and Employers – CACEE, Toronto, ON. December 5 – 6, 2005
NATCON 2006: Career Development for Workplace Skills, Canada Career Consortium – CCC, Ottawa, ON. January 23 – 25, 2006
HRPAO Annual Conference and Exposition, Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario (HRPAO), Toronto, ON. February 1 – 3, 2006
Phoenix Rising – Exploring Tradition and Change, The Western Association of Colleges and Employers (WACE) Rocky Mountain Association of Colleges and Employers (RMACE), Phoenix, Arizona, US. December 7 – 9, 2005
2005 ACTE Convention and Career Tech Expo, Association for Career & Technical Education, New Orleans, Louisiana US. December 8 – 10, 2005
International Conference on Researching Work and Learning, OVAL Research Faculty of Education, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. December 11 – 14, 2005
The 4th Annual Hawaii International Conference, East West Council for Education Asia-Pacific Research Institute of Peking University, Honolulu, Hawaii US. January 6 – 9, 2006
Center on Education and Work 2006 Conference , Center on Education and Work, University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, Wisconsin US. January 30 – February 30, 2006
Call for Presentations
International Conference on Counselling 2006: Creating, Connecting, Celebrating – Center on Education and Work, International Association for Counselling, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Deadline: January 31, 2006.
By Gail Franklin
Ruth was an office administrator with an insurance firm until a week after her thirty-seventh birthday. Then she was involved in a serious car accident. Despite months of rehabilitation, she was left with chronic neck and shoulder pain, memory problems and panic attacks. These injuries cut her out of the full-time labour force and destroyed her confidence that she would ever return to work.
by Julie Bradley
As with many fields of employment, the counselling field is rife with certificate programs, degrees, diploma and qualifications that are deemed “necessary”, yet in reality, those of us who hire youth workers/counsellors are looking for many things aside from basic education.
By Cathy Keates and Jennifer Sipos
For anyone working with clients who are trying to decide whether to pursue a university education or, with clients who already have a university degree and don’t know what to do with it, it may be helpful to be able to explain some of the myths, ifs and truths about the value of a university degree.
At York University, the Career Centre and the Faculty of Arts partner regularly to help students understand how to make the most of their university experience and to clearly understand how to value the endless career possibilities open to them once a degree is complete.
Most often, working through the “myths” and “ifs” can help people discover the great “truths” about the value of a university degree.
1. A university degree is just a piece of paper, or some letters (eg BA, MSc etc) on your resume. The piece of paper and letters that represent a university education also signal the successful completion of a life-changing experience that includes the development of critical thinking and learning skills.
2. A university degree is not enough – you need to go on to college to get real job training. This commonly held myth is easily contradicted by the evidence that a university degree provides key skills valued by all employers. These foundational skills, though not always job specific (such as how to operate particular office equipment, or other workplace-specific tasks) are the general skills that are so highly valued in the current workplace including problem solving, critical thinking and teamwork skills, as well as being able to appreciate a diversity of ideas and people.
1. If you study history you are preparing for jobs in history. The reality is that academic majors are not limited to specific professions. Many disciplines have “related” occupations, but university training provides the preparation needed for a wide range of career fields. For example, studying history may lead to a career directly related to history, such as museum curator, or history teacher. However, the skills required to successfully complete a history degree, can also uniquely connect with an individual’s personality, values, interests and experiences, leading to exciting and unique career paths, outside of obvious “history” related areas.
1. University graduates enter the labour market with great success. Most Canadian universities have graduation employment rates over 96%.1 Employers recognize the value of the fundamental skills earned as part of a university degree and prefer to hire university educated employees.
2. University graduates understand career possibilities by the time they graduate, but also understand the need for experience, personal growth, maturity and change. It is because the university experience uniquely combines intellectual stimulation, personal growth, social opportunities and career development that so many graduates look back on their university years as “some of the best years of their lives.”
It is hard to describe, and impossible to really quantify the value of a university degree. Beyond the evidence of the successful employment rates of university graduates, most, if not all university grads will tell you that they value their degree for several reasons. The personal transformation that occurs through the experience of studying and learning gives individuals the confidence to self-manage their careers in an uncertain labour market and the ability to better meet the demands and challenges of life.
1Labour Force Survey 2000, Statistics Canada
Two books by Faculty of Arts professors John A. Dwyer and Thomas R. Klassen:
1. A practical guide to getting a great job after University
2. Flourishing in university and beyond
Some other thoughts on the value of a university degree at “Train Your Brain”
www.trainyourbrain.ca/english/supporters/supporters.html
Searchable database of Canadian university programs from the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
www.aucc.ca/can_uni/search/index_e.html
Resources for guidance counsellors from the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
www.aucc.ca/publications/resourcesfor/guidance_e.html
Jennifer Sipos is the Manager of Communications and Public Relations in the Faculty of Arts at York University. Ms Sipos is responsible for developing annual strategic communications initiatives to enhance student recruitment, alumni, faculty and media relations and, the public profile of the Faculty of Arts.
Cathy Keates is the Associate Director of the Career Centre at York University. She oversees the team of staff who create and deliver career development and job search support services to students, in person and online, including the award winning Career Cyberguide.