Students from the South Cariboo got to check out various in-demand career paths at Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School where Work BC had an interactive Find Your Fit Tour.
“Our idea behind this whole thing is the ability to use interactive and engaging activities to help cultivate passion and help peak an interest in a different career or something they’ve never thought of before,” said Vi Phan, the tour manager. “All of our presenters are here to help educate them on what type of required skills they would need for the job.”
Most of the stations had interactive displays, allowing the students to practice or learn these skills. For example, the electrition station allowed the students to play with switchboards and a pilot station allowed them to simulate how to take off, fly and land.
Other fields were explored in the tour, such as physiotherapy, medical fields, and the classic trades such as carpentry and auto technicians.
“There is a huge need for replacement people in those industries, especially in rural communities,” said Nick Kearly, one of the tour’s presenters. “In the three years I have done it, more and more schools have been encouraging kids to go into the trades, like giving more access to those sort of programs. Those programs are coming back like woodshop and home economics.”
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Phan said one important thing the tour is trying to achieve is making sure jobs in B.C. go to people in the province.
“There are so many more people moving into B.C. and taking jobs away in a way, so our goal is to be able to give these kids some resources so we can give B.C. jobs back to B.C. people so we can continue to grow our economy,” she said.
Grade 6 students from Forest Grove Elementary were on the tour, along with PSO’s Grade 10 students. One of them was Kahli Angus who was browsing the medical field section. She wants to be a veterinarian.
“When I’m older I want to work on animals and help with populations and stuff because I love animals. If you’re riding a horse and it falls and if you have to put it down, I don’t want to do that. I want to help it,” she said.
Angus said she had various animals at home, including dogs, cats, horses, sheep, pigs and others.
She said the interactive display was helpful in learning about the field.
Lita Montgomery, a Grade 10 student, was also interested in the medical field. Montgomery said she was always interested in helping others and would like to do something in nursing or something in the veterinary field.
She also said she didn’t learn any new information at those displays, as she has taken part in the Find Your Fit Tour before but still had some good words about the whole tour.
“We can all just go around and check out things we like to do or just test what there is and how there’s a whole bunch of options people might not have known about,” she said.
brendan.jure@100milefreepress.net
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