Roughly 1,300 Grade 8 students from across Wellington County descended on the Hanlon Convention Centre Thursday to get some insight into what their future may be like.
The 18th annual career pathways event - Your Future, Your Choice: connecting the pieces and building careers - was presented by the Career Education Council. It featured guest speakers and 40 information booths set up by companies, organizations and institutions that might be a part of the students’ future.
Started by the Rotary Club in 1990, the Career Education Council connects business and education by helping students explore and learn about the workforce and their future in it.
Kelly Schafer, Executive Director of the Career Education Council, said Grade 8 students on the verge of choosing their high school courses for the first time aren’t too young to hear about career insights.
“You are putting together a puzzle that is your future,” Schafer told the students, who represented both school boards.
“You may not know what the picture will look like, but you can start putting the pieces together,” Schafer said.
She said the choices made in high school, even early on, are the building blocks for future careers.
Students listened to a guest panel representing a broad range of career choices.
Pauline Carkner is an electrician with Hydro One.
She told the students that having a trade meant “a job for life.”
“No one can take that ticket away from you,” said Carkner, who became interested in the trades when she took a technical trades course in Grade 9 that gave her a taste of a variety of different trades.
“You’ll always have a job,” she said.
Chris Allan is a quality scientist with Guelph-based pharmaceutical firm Johnson & Johnson.
He said he didn’t like chemistry at first but now has his PhD in it and a rewarding career.
“Give things a second chance,” was part of his advice to the students.
Kelly Brooks, who founded the tech firm SpeakFeed Corp., said being an entrepreneur has been incredibly rewarding.
She urged the students to take chances and not be discouraged when things don’t go as planned.
“Failure is the biggest part of being an entrepreneur,” said Brooks, whose company has developed over 150 mobile apps.
“You cannot be afraid to fail … you are going to make mistakes and you will grow.”
