Career forum highlight regional careers to students

Junior Achievement of Southern Alberta is asking high school students in the region if they’re ready for a world of choices with a career forum March 2 at the Strathmore Civic Centre.
“We want students not to just come to an event and walk around but to actually engage with each of these mentors,” said Regional Coordinator Tristan Periard.
With the theme of World of Choices, The Fourth Industrial Revolution, the event will show high school students the wide variety of career paths available to them in the region.
170 students from Strathmore, Chestermere, Beiseker, and Standard will have the opportunity to ask for advice and begin the daunting task of choosing a career and what sorts of education and qualifications are necessary in their chosen career.
Nearly half of those going are from Chestermere. Chestermere High School is sending 40 students and 25 are coming from St. Gabriel the Archangel School.
Most of the students are in Grades 10 and 11. Organizers are encouraging students who have an idea as to what they want to do after High School to find a mentor at the event and discuss their plans.
“We want to encourage them to find a mentor and maybe get a different perspective or higher understanding of what that job actually entails,” she said.
For students that have no idea what they want to do the event will hopefully inspire them to discover a career they are interested in.
“This is really, a way for students to gain a bit of understanding about what careers are available to them in this area and what the career actually entails,” said Periard.
There will experts and mentors representing 31 different careers at the forum.
They range from a traditional career such as teacher or nurse to entrepreneurs.
“Different careers that are, I’m going to say, are very non-traditional but are within our region saying listen we have so many options available to you guys,” she said.
One example that Periard gave of this was of a nurse that came to a previous career fair.
“She was a traditional nurse but then she also had a Masters that she went into becoming an educational nurse,” she said.
Instead of working on the floor, this nurse now works to teach other nurses.
Returning for her third year at the forum is Chestermere City Councilor and civil engineer Jennifer Massig.
Mentors and work experience have played a key role in her career choices and she wants to be able help provide those same opportunities to students.
“It was the mentors and work experience that really gave me a good idea about the field I wanted to get into,” said Massig.
“Without speaking or asking questions about a chosen career it can be difficult for a student not yet in the workforce to fully understand all of their potential opportunities,” she said.
Massig believes that the best way to learn about a career is to meet with someone passionate about that career.
She is looking forward to talking with the students about both her engineering and political roles.
“My goal is to inspire every student that attends my station to ask tough questions and dig deeper into a) who they are as part of their journey and b) to challenge us mentors to better understand our role in guiding the next generation,” said Massig.
Having mentors like this come in to speak to the high school students shows them that even in traditional careers there several possible career paths available to suit different people’s interests and strengths.
At this year’s forum, one of the careers that stands out to Periard is that of a software designer who make ticketing software for theatre and creative arts programs.
“So when people go order a ticket online he has that software developed for them,” she said.
“I think that’s really cool,” said Periard, “I think it’s an industry that’s growing.”
Another presenter she is looking forward to is an IT Architecture Manager which ties into this year’s theme of the fourth industrial revolution.
“We’re on the forefront of this industrial revolution and the change of jobs,” she said.
This job entails creating and managing the IT in a business.
“So what does the IT look like and what is the software capabilities,” said Periard.
This is the fourth year that Junior Achievement of Southern Alberta has held this career forum.
Although it is a little too soon to know how many students are entering careers in the region Periard said that the increasing demand by students for the fair shows it is successful and needed.
“The program has actually grown to where we’re actually having waiting lists of students,” she said.