Over the course of 10 separate days, the Ontario Career Lab was in action across Hastings & Prince Edward counties and visited 13 schools, recruited 250 career coaches, met with over 1500 students and shared 90,000 minutes of conversation.
In an effort to connect with as many students as possible at a very busy time of year, guidance leads and admin teams throughout the Algonquin Lakeshore Catholic & Hastings Prince Edward District School Boards rallied teachers of Grade 9 and 10 students to join this innovative pilot program that focuses on supporting students trying to identify a career path through small group conversations rather than large presentations.
On the other side of the table were volunteers recruited primarily through the Belleville Chamber of Commerce network of members who were willing to share their career journeys in two 30-minute conversations per school period/grade cohort.
HIEC, the organization behind the provincial delivery of the Ontario Career Lab, initially identified chambers of commerce as ideal partners with their connection to local industry leaders through their members, ensuring the conversations would be with people living and working in the same community as the students. Nearly 70 members of the Belleville Chamber of Commerce came forward to support the 250 coaching sessions required and many signed up more than once, travelling from Picton to Bancroft ensuring as many students as possible would benefit from this year’s rollout.
This approach helped students realize that a career path is rarely straight and comments of “I love it” and “it was an effective event and helped me feel better about the future” were common themes. Coaches also expressed their enthusiasm in having these conversations and how important they felt making that these connections with local youths were towards expanding students’ visions of possible career options.
Jill Raycroft, CEO, Belleville Chamber of Commerce, who understands better than most what a winding career journey looks like, explained that the value of this engagement is just the beginning.
“Since I started at the Belleville Chamber in 2017, it has been one of my goals to spotlight the employment landscape created by the diversity I see in our membership. Being able to work directly with students to share what types of opportunity exist in the region through these conversations has been an incredible experience.”
The initiative has also inspired a number of ideas between coaches, teachers, guidance departments and the chamber and while the future of the pilot isn’t certain, the relationships built over the launch of the program will continue to build on the success of this collaboration.
