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Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.
~ William Butler Yeates
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May 20, 2012
Step 2 – Exploring Your Options
Armed with all of the knowledge from the first section you can know start generating a list of occupations that fit your profile and your needs and wants. This process involves researching, investigating and networking to gather as much information about occupations and industry sectors. A sector is a group of occupations that have similar skill sets, values, interests. For example, physician, nurse, practical nurse, lab tech, home care aid are all part of the health care sector.
It is important to remember that there is not just one perfect job for you. A career is a lifelong journey and is an accumulation of all your occupations, experiences, volunteer work and much more. Look into the sectors and labour market information to discover new possibilities that fit with who you are. From there you can research and find out what is needed to get to where you want to go – never forgetting that change is constant and that you need to enjoy the journey.
Definitions:
A job is specific position with an employer in which you receive pay. Example, registered nurse in the Women’s Health Department at the Moose Jaw Union Hospital.
An occupation is a wide category of jobs with similar characteristics. Example, nursing is considered an occupation. There are a variety of different types of nursing and related jobs that all have similar aspects.
A career is a life time journey including all of your life experience including education, training, travel, work, and volunteer work. In other words it is like your portfolio and resume.
THINGS TO DO
Career Research:
When you are doing your research you should be looking for information relating to duties, working conditions, personal characteristics, educational requirements, related careers, employment and salary, and projected employment outlook.
Do not forget about Entrepreneurship as an option! You get to do what you love and contribute to our economy. There are also many initiatives to assist First Nations and Métis, women, and youth to start their own business. Sign up for Entrepreneurship or Junior Achievement at your high school if you want to pursue this avenue.
Networking:
Access your allies! Talk to you parents, family, and friends. As well as attend guest speaker presentations in your school to learn more about what it is you want to do in your life! People are your greatest resource and professionals are typically very eager to answer questions and help out.
Other:
Talk to your career counsellor today to get something set up or use your own networks to start investigating and gathering data. Suggested information interview questions. (Download PDF Here)
- Volunteer or gain some work experience in a related field.
- Class selections
- Pre-requisite – make sure you are taking the right classes to meet the basic admission requirements for the program you are interested in.
Many Pathways:
It is also important to explore the different types of education and training needed to pursue your goals. There are many pathways that you can explore after high school. Below is a list of many of them.
- Post-secondary (university, college, private college, technical schools)
- Apprenticeship
- Volunteer work
- Travelling
- Employment
For more information go to the education and training section. There is a list of schools per province in the section among other information.
© 2009 Holy Trinity Catholic School Divison