Finding a career can be difficult especially if your ten years old.
Which is why WorkBC created Find Your Fit, a traveling tour to help kids start to think about what career will suit them best.
“The main thing is providing a hands-on introduction for kids to explore the careers in demand and careers that will become in demand over the next decade,” Tom Swiecicki, tour manager, said.
The job fair held March 4 at Evelyn Dickson Elementary (EDS), hosted a number of interactive stations that highlighted high-in-demand jobs such as electrician, heavy equipment operator and truck driver to name a few. Nearly 450 Gr 5, 6 and 7 students from W.L. McLeod, EDS, Sinkutview, Mapes, Fraser Lake, and Nechako Valley, visited the tour to learn more about the predicted one million jobs that the province foresees opening in BC by 2022.
“Our main goal is to make this information readily available so BC residents are first in line for these jobs,” Swiecicki said.
A number of I-pad stations gave students access to career-finding websites including workbc.ca and careertrekbc.ca. CareerTrek features videos and interviews from people already working in industry. WorkBC features a number of career finding tools such as a BC job search and My Blueprint Builder, a guideline tool to create a step-by-step career timeline.
“It will also help aid you in finding the right schools, financial aid if needed, the right vocational training and where to go,” Swiecicki said.
WorkBC also has a Labour Market Navigator to search careers in demand in your area, and a Career Compass which asks the user a series of questions and provides potential suitable careers.
“This is part of an ongoing initiative to cast as wide a net as possible to provide students with these kinds of opportunities,” Darren Carpenter, career and trades coordinator, said. “District wide we do interactive things like this at the high school level so providing the same on the elementary level is very exciting.”
The tour began in October 2014 with the hopes of reaching as many communities as possible. The tour already came to Burns Lake but was asked to come back to Vanderhoof for it’s high educational value, Carpenter said.
Anyone with an email can register on workbc.ca or visit the website for more information.