Ecole H.J. Cody High School will be holding a Career Fair on March 21.
Holding a Career Fair is one of the many ways that H.J. Cody’s career team can show the students what opportunities are out there to take advantage of.
“We want these kids to have every opportunity afforded to them, and the only way to do that is to go out and find the opportunities,” academic and career counsellor Jas Payne said.
“Something like this career fair is our effort to try and bring the world of work into the building instead of the kids having to go out and find these things individually.”
During their time at H.J. Cody, many students choose their career paths based on conversations they have with career and academic counsellors Payne, Theresa Donaghy, and Darla Bell.
“We give them the chance to see things they haven’t seen and then they start to explore it. Most kids end up doing what their parents did or something similar to it because that’s what they see every day. We emulate what we see every day. So we just want to show them things that we don’t see every day,” Payne said.
Career Fairs and Expos are just the beginning. The career team also organizes post-secondary tour opportunities, dual credit programs with post-secondary institutions where students can achieve college credentials, and more.
One of the five main goals of the Chinook’s Edge School Division is that every kid will have a plan when they leave school, Bell said.
“Our division is very passionate about offering great opportunities, including offering dual credit, and that is becoming huge within Alberta.”
With the dual credit program, she added that the education part of the tuition is paid for.
“Students who do on-site dual credit go to Olds College to take a college level trades course and it’s meant to give them a chance to trial it to see if they like it as well as giving them that credential.”
Online dual credit includes courses like the Health Care Aide program and the Veterinary Technician program and is becoming increasingly popular.
“This is our third year doing it and we will have students graduating from Olds College as well as H.J. Cody,” Bell said.
For the Career Fair, over 20 businesses have signed up to take part this year.
The Career Fair will be open only to students from 12 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and then afterward will be open to the general public from 3:30 to 6 p.m.
“H.J. Cody is on a mission to give back to the community and the Career Fair is one of the ways,” Bell said.