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CAREERLINK 2006
Held Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Organized By
Vitesse Re-SkillingTM Canada Inc. (Vitesse)
Partnering to Articulate for Student Success (PASS)
Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI)
Forum Overview
Vitesse and PASS have collaborated to offer a one-day forum – CareerLink 2006 – to bring together high school career/guidance counsellors from across Eastern Ontario and representatives of Ottawa's technology industry. The Forum showcased PASS' initiative towards industry, discussed industry skill needs and estimated current and future demand for graduates in the field, as well as the possibility for establishing a permanent mechanism for co-op placements of high school students or other ways for thse students to experience working in the technology sector such as job shadowing or mentorship.
It was attended by 54 participants, including 17 company representatives, 1 academic representative, 5 from associations and not-for profit organizations, 26 career/guidance counsellors, 2 technology teachers and 3 Students from six district school boards across Eastern Ontario.
Evaluations from participants were extremely positive with good suggestions for future events. More than 80 percent of the teachers and counsellors felt that the objectives of organizing this event were met. Furthermore, all of the survey respondents indicated that they would like to see the forum becoming an annual event with more discussion between the educators and companies, expanding the connection between educators and companies by having more and more companies attending each year and establishing group tours for students throughout the year of the manufacturing facilities.
Forum Benefits
- Established a connection between Eastern Ontario high school boards and local advanced technology companies
- Provided an opportunity for educators to learn about leading technologies and the future prospects in these fields and also about the general trends of the technology sector in Ottawa
- Initiated discussion between high school educators and industry participants about what educators are doing to promote technology careers to high school students and how that can be improved with the involvement of local tech companies
- Showed local advanced technology companies as supporters of educating youth in science and engineering
- Improved PASS and Vitesse' profiles in the community and established them as leading organizations to bridge high school students and their curriculum with the skills and demands of the future
- Fostered and promoted the importance of science and technology to the future leaders of tomorrow We would like to thank....
....all the counsellors/teachers for participating!
....the students and their teachers for demonstrating their creative robotic projects and giving other high school educators the motivation and ideas to facilitate creative learning in science and technology
....all the representatives from Enablence Inc., Zarlink Semiconductor, ALFT Inc., Toshiba Business Solutions, General Dynamics Canada, Nortel Networks and Curtiss-Wright Controls - Embedded Computing for informing educators about current technologies and the skills required to work with you
....the 3 companies that provided great tours of their manufacturing facilities ---Enablence Inc., Zarlink Semiconductor and Curtiss-Wright Controls - Embedded Computing
....Dr. Monique Frize from Carleton University and the University of Ottawa for her motivating talk on how to get promote fun in science and technology and the importance of especially motivating high school girls
....OCRI for their support and view on the trends of Ottawa's current labour market
....and PASS for allowing us to work with them once again to promote/facilitate the importance of science and technology to our future leaders of tomorrow!
Click HERE to view pictures from the forum
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