Canada Career Month kicks off next week and Yorkville University is celebrating the occasion with a full slate of activities aimed at helping students successfully transition into the labour market.
Recognized every November, Canada Career Month is a time when Canadians from coast-to-coast-to-coast acknowledge and reflect on the importance of accessing meaningful work and celebrate all those that help us in connecting with our preferred futures.
Dr. Deirdre Pickerell, Yorkville University’s Dean of Student Success, said that while all of Yorkville’s programs are geared to helping students find professionally rewarding careers straight out of school, students must also play “active agents” in their own success stories.
“Just completing your program and being really successful in school doesn’t necessarily ensure an easy transition into the labour market. So, we really want students to take the opportunity during Canada Career Month to reflect on what skills they need to find that important first job and to manage and grow their careers,” she said.
“Whether you are transitioning from post-secondary into the labour market for the first time, using your education to grow your career within your current workspace, or perhaps looking for other opportunities, now is the time to really get a sense of what you need.”
To assist students on their respective journeys to career fulfillment, Pickerell’s Student Success Unit has joined forces with Yorkville’s Business Development office to organize a month-long series of events – including weekly, career-centered Ask an Expert sessions and other special Canada Career Month-themed webinars.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article has been updated to include the recordings of the webinars. Click the links to view them.
The events are as follows:
Ask an Expert | Career Development is a SUPERPOWER
Sareena Hopkins, executive director of the Canadian Career Development Foundation, leads a virtual discussion on how career development helps people to manage complex, unpredictable life transitions – even pandemics. Chances are today’s career development is NOT what you experienced with your guidance counsellor or any online career test you may have taken. Come and find out what the heck it is and why, more than ever before, it’s a superpower that can help you live the life you want to live.
Click Here to Watch
Ask an Expert | Career Risks, Rewards, and Resilience: Lessons from a Real-Life Journey
In this presentation, Gregg Taylor – a registered clinical counsellor, career coach, and workplace mental health expert – will share stories from his own career journey. He will discuss his failures, successes and surprising twists and turns – to demonstrate that “CAREER” is a journey and state of mind rather than a single destination (or title, company, job, or role).
Click Here to Watch
Ask an Expert | The Evolution of Employability in a Post COVID Economy
As the pandemic resets major work trends, Business leaders and job searchers alike need to rethink the skillsets that will ensure success for both the employee and the organization. Research from industry leaders like Gartner, Mckinsey and IBM suggests a profound shift is underway in the future of work, as organizational redesigns are shifting from capturing efficiency to building resilience. Such large-scale transformation happening in the already changing business landscape of “Trust Economy”, “bytes to insights “strategy of data, Tech-tonic shifts, makes it even more challenging for job aspirants to zero in on the skill set that will be relevant in the workplace of future. This webinar, presented by Amit Pradhan, senior regional leader at Amazon and former Director of Supply Chain at Mountain Equipment Co-Op, will attempt to aggregate such research from industry leaders and share personal insights of the speaker to provide some recommendations for students joining the workforce in navigating through such a changing economy.
Click Here to Watch
Writing a Resume When You Lack Experience
Creating a resume that focuses on your relevant skills and associated accomplishments can help employers see how you can help them with the problems they need to solve. Learn how to showcase your talents in a targeted way and start getting yourself put into the “yes” pile when applying for work.
Click Here to Watch
Ask an Expert | Building Your Career Your Way
“Career” is something that is built over a lifetime, marking each individual’s journey through life, learning, and work across a wide range of roles. Some people take a very planful, structured approach to carefully analyzing all their options, setting clear goals, and creating detailed action plans. Others are more organic, making the most of unplanned events and opportunities. Neither approach is wrong, the key is often to be able to tolerate uncertainty, put in the effort, and, perhaps most importantly, embrace the notion that every decision is a career decision.
Click Here to Watch
Ask an Expert | Understanding Personal Branding and How To Make It Work For You In Your Job Search
Mark Wicken – president of The Mark Wicken Group, an executive search firm specializing in the marketing, advertising and communications industries – will lead a virtual discussion on personal branding. As students enter the job market for the first time they need to know and understand that job search is a competition and the person who gets the job is the person who is best prepared. This means that in every aspect of the job search from networking, the resume, to the interview, a student must differentiate him/herself and perform better than the competition if he/she is to get the job.
Click Here to Watch
In addition to the Canada Career Month line-up of events, the Student Success team is also working hard to produce a series of Day-in-the-Life documents – a series of one-to-two page handouts that will explore careers associated with each of Yorkville University’s various programs.
“Our kick-off will be A Day in the Life of an Accountant, which really connects with our Bachelor of Business Administration students who are doing the Accounting specialty,” Pickerell said.
“We hope to release one of these for every single one of our programs across Yorkville University, so it’s pretty exciting.”
Lastly, Pickerell said she hopes Canada Career Month will also see the launch of Yorkville University’s new Learning Success Centre, which will feature an entire section devoted to career development.
“From exploring careers to managing your careers, looking at the labour market, writing your resume, and building your portfolio…whatever it is, the Careers section of the Learning Success Centre should have it all,” she said, encouraging students who wish to get involved in Canada Career Month to attend Yorkville’s events and keep their eye on their school emails for regular updates.
“I really invite all our students to take the time in November to join us for Canada Career Month and let us provide you with the services and support you need to grow your career in all the ways that you can imagine.”
