COVER

EDUCATION Career uncertainty common in a changing world

Postsecondary career services more important as pace of tech change and soft-skills demand increase

by Charlie Smith

Like many university students, Cole Evans hasn’t yet settled on a career choice. But he has a great deal to offer prospective employers when he graduates next year with his bachelor’s degree in political science, with a minor in history. That’s because Evans is serving as president of the Alma Mater Society, which represents 57,000 students in its dealings with the University of British Columbia administration. He’s also a member of the university’s senate and previously chaired the AMS’s human-resources committee.

“I have no idea what I am going to do when I graduate,” Evans told the Straight by phone. “My family background is in marketing and advertising, and I definitely have a big interest in that. But I’m also interested in a lot of business-administration things.”

He hopes to attend graduate school, possibly to obtain a law degree or a master’s in business administration. He’s also aware that there are some programs available that offer both of these credentials. But he also acknowledged that a lot can change between now and when he obtains his bachelor’s degree.

Evans is far from unique in not knowing where his future career may lead him. Deanne Esdale is a career educator at Simon Fraser University and she deals with students from their first year until a year after they graduate. In a phone interview with the Straight, she said that uncertainty about one’s future is normal at this age.

“It’s okay not to know,” Esdale emphasized. “But there are definitely things that you can do to take action so that you are ready for opportunity.”

She said that those considering career options should try to avoid becoming too isolated. Although that’s not always easy to do in a pandemic, it’s still important to make connections with others.

One way is through an “informational interview”, sometimes called a “coffee chat” or “field research”. This involves contacting someone with an organization and asking if you can spend time asking some questions about how it functions. That way, a young person can learn if it might be a good fit for them.

“You make those connections so that when an opportunity does come up, you could potentially have a reference there,” Esdale said.

It’s quite common for people to take personality tests, which are widely available online, to learn more about their aptitudes for certain careers.

Esdale, however, cautioned that the world has changed a great deal during the past 25 years. While these personality tests can be fun and can yield a “real light-bulb moment”, they can also be simplistic.

“We change, the world is changing, and there’s new jobs on the market all the time,” Esdale said.

NORMAN LIU, the 30-year-old co-owner of Grand Chinese Yaletown Restaurant, is an example of someone who has undergone a surprising career change. He came to Canada in 2013 from the northern Chinese city of Changchun as an international student studying business at Simon Fraser University. After graduating, he worked for luxury brands like Tiffany’s, Rolex, and Monte Cristo. Liu is also a competitive bodybuilder, and he eventually decided that he wanted to be his own boss. So in September 2019, he opened his restaurant in partnership with chef Jian-Feng Wu.

“I lost a lot of money during COVID-19 when it started, in March, April, and May,” Liu told the Straight by phone. Things picked up in the summer, and he’s now breaking even. He’s also looking forward to the Dine Out Vancouver Festival, which begins on Friday (February 5).

“I never did restaurants before,” he said. “It’s my first business.”

Back at UBC, Evans said that career services is a huge part of a student’s postsecondary experience.

“You have a lot of students nowadays who are attending school in various degree programs who don’t necessarily have an idea of what career they want to pursue after they graduate,” he noted. “We’ve seen a huge rise in the importance of experience-based skills when organizations are looking to recruit—as opposed to just having a degree now.

“So we’ve made it really clear to the university in our advocacy that career services is absolutely a priority,” Evans continued. “We’ve heard also from the VP students office at UBC that they are going to make career services a priority in the coming years.”

Another challenge facing young people today is the pace of technological change. Artificial intelligence has the potential to wipe out entire occupations, just as the Internet did in the past to other job categories. Esdale said that everything from accounting to the legal field is already being affected by this trend.

“You can do your own divorce now online,” she pointed out. “Having an awareness for what the future may hold is helpful.”

In addition, she said that it’s even more important to develop the so-called soft skills that can help people evolve in a changing employment environment. That means enhancing interpersonal, motivational, intuitive, and communications abilities.

“All of those kinds of skills are so valuable to develop and are needed across all industries,” Esdale said.

There’s another concern with AI that was inconceivable 10 or 20 years ago. And that’s application-tracking systems where bots screen résumés. In some cases, bots are even conducting interviews with large companies in the United States. It’s possible for someone to enhance their résumé for the bots by running it through the Jobscan.co website.

“If you keep applying for jobs and it’s not happening right now, put your energy into something you can control,” Esdale recommended.

That can include cleaning up your online identity, building out your LinkedIn profile, and making connections in the community that can potentially yield results in the future.

“Find ways to feel that you have a sense of purpose every day,” she declared.

It’s good advice even for those not seeking a new career, particularly in this period that’s being influenced so dramatically by COVID-19. There’s nothing like feeling useful to ward off pandemicinduced despair. g

UBC student Cole Evans (left) won’t get his bachelor’s degree until next year, but he knows that experience-based skills are often as important to employers as a degree. SFU career educator Deanne Esdale says that students unsure about career goals can still prepare for the near future.

Having an awareness for what the future may hold is helpful.

– Deanne Esdale

EDUCATION Capilano University tourism and outdoor recreation students make connections to environment through offline learning

( is story is sponsored by Capilano University.)

When COVID-19 began last March, North Vancouver–based Capilano University quickly pivoted to prioritize the safety of students while keeping them engaged in learning. e faculty in the schools of Tourism Management and Outdoor Recreation Management saw this as an opportunity to more actively utilize outdoor spaces for teaching.

“ ese programs are largely experiential and include a lot of time spent in the eld. We immediately recognized that COVID-19 was going to a ect how we delivered course content,” says Graham Vaughan, convenor of the School of Outdoor Recreation Management. “We’ve worked closely with the occupational health and safety team at the university to follow provincial guidelines and protocols so that we can safely continue the in-person eld trips.”

For more than 25 years, the bachelor of tourism management program has offered the only tourism degree in the Lower Mainland. Additionally, both schools offer two-year diploma programs that ladder into the four-year degree.

While the pandemic hit pause on the majority of travel within Canada and abroad, the tourism industry is expected to recover. And when it bounces back, there will be a surge in the demand for tourism and recreation professionals eager to take on leadership roles within the industry.

Many of the courses within the outdoor recreation management program have outdoor field experience components. Students connect with the environment through these activities and they are a core part of the learning outcomes. Impressively, the faculty has been able to continue many of these exciting excursions with their students throughout the pandemic.

“We’ve managed to do a whole spectrum of things, from meeting for an hour or two on campus at one of the university’s outdoor classrooms to ve- or six-day kayaking and backpacking trips,” Vaughan says. “Everyone has their masks and hand sanitizer handy, we set up individual cooking stations, and we order multiple buses to transport students so that we can have a 30 percent occupancy rate in each.”

At this time of year, students in the tourism management diploma program are usually preparing for their summer co-op work terms or applying for study abroad or for academic-exchange opportunities such as the partnership with University of California Riverside and Walt Disney World. All of these will resume when safe to do so, and in the meantime students take part in course-related eld-trip experiences that are considered pandemic-friendly.

“Our faculty has been able to continue offline learning with our students instead of spending all our hours on online,” says Joanna Jagger, convenor of the bachelor of tourism management programs. “We’ve been able to pivot in a way that still includes these valuable learning experiences as best as possible. And for our tourism program, this includes having students safely audit five-star hotels as overnight mystery shoppers, take cycling tours to local attractions, and much more.”

In the gastronomy tourism course, students received a terroir box with culinary treats from local producers, as the field trips to Abbotsford farms were cancelled this year. Then the farmers spoke to the students over Zoom. “Instead of going to the farm, the farm came to them,” Jagger says.

Many people forget to consider the tourism and outdoor recreation industry when thinking of a future career. It’s common to get hung up on more traditional job trajectories within business, technology, and healthcare, but these aren’t for everyone.

“A career within the tourism industry is perfect for students who want to be connected to people, the outdoor world, and to a traveller’s experience,” Jagger says. “Many of our graduates choose to take their careers global.”

Outdoor recreation is ideal for those who enjoy being active, spending time outside, learning about our environment, and advocating for it.

“It’s a resilient industry, and there’s going to be a significant labour demand once it bounces back,” Vaughan says. “The students currently in our programs and those who are about to enroll are in a great position.” g

Physically distanced outdoor field trips are one way that Capilano University’s schools of Tourism Management and Outdoor Recreation Management are keeping students safe and engaged.

Many of our graduates choose to take their careers global.

– Joanna Jagger

To learn more about the Tourism Management and Outdoor Recreation Management programs, join the virtual info night on February 10, 2021, from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The online event will be hosted by Joanna Jagger and Graham Vaughan, who will discuss the programs and opportunities at CapU. To register, visit www.capilanou.ca/about-capu/ get-to-know-us/events/.

EDUCATION ITA creates enhanced access to trades training

(This story is sponsored by the Industry Training Authority.)

While many faced job-related uncertainty during the pandemic, those with trades experience and education have remained in high demand. Tradespeople are consistently sought after, as they possess hands-on practical skills, making them exceptionally employable. Not to mention that those working within the trades earn a generous salary.

The Industry Training Authority is a Crown corporation that manages the apprenticeship system in B.C., providing inclusive, world-class apprenticeships for more than 100 skilled trades.

ITA’s newest training model focuses on taking trades training to the members of Indigenous communities across B.C. The Community Based Training (CBT) programs bring together communities, training providers, employers, and ITA to lift barriers to accessibility of trades training and careers.

According to the Labour Market Outlook to 2029, approximately 71,000 job openings are expected to come available for tradespeople within the next 10 years. So there has never been a better time for Indigenous people to enter the industry.

With CBT programs, students get to stay close to their home and culture while receiving their training. It provides the communities with an opportunity to build a foundation for sustainable trades training and apprenticeship pathways right in their communities.

“Community Based Training is about building meaningful relationships with Indigenous communities and ensuring that we’re working together to increase accessibility for Indigenous people to explore and pursue a meaningful career in skilled trades,” says Shelley Gray, CEO of ITA. “This model isn’t just about training apprentices for today but creating mentors and skilled tradespeople to guide the future generations of apprentices within the communities for years to come.”

There are 16 CBT programs confirmed to run this year, with an additional 22 moving through the stages of planning and development. The CBT program is part of ITA’s commitment to reconciliation, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) calls to action, and B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA).

Nuxalk Nation was able to build a successful carpentry program right in Bella Coola with the support of Camosun College and ITA. It also established the Nuxalk Construction company to continue to build on the training program and employee apprentices and graduates. To date, participants of the program have built energy-efficient homes, a chief’s house, a daycare, and a laundry facility for single, homeless, or low-income community members—and this is only the beginning.

“CBT is successful because everyone involved has a common goal of optimizing the opportunity for the apprentices’ success in skilled trades training and career,” Gray says.

This training model also creates a sustainable apprenticeship pathway within the Indigenous communities for future apprentices. Once a student gains a Red Seal designation or Certificate of Qualification, they can train the next group of apprentices. g

Industry Training Authority’s collaboration with Indigenous communities, including on this building created with the first cohort of apprentices for the Nuxalk Nation, demonstrates its new approach.

For more information on ITA’s Indigenous Peoples in Trades programs, visit www.itabc.ca/indigenouspeoples-trades/.

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