ATHABASCA – Getting a job can be tough as a summer student. Without the relevant experience or training, it can be a challenge to find companies willing to teach without the long-term commitment in return.
Aspen View Public School trustees heard a presentation on that exact topic from Holly Bilton, the provincial manager with CAREERS: Next Generation, and a school trustee at Chinook Edge in south-central Alberta, during their June 14 board meeting,
“Trades are the bailiwick at CAREERS, we’ve done this work for a lot of years,” said Bilton.
Aspen View has worked with CAREERS, a non-profit that specializes in bringing industry and schools together to help youth find careers for many years, although Bilton only brought the numbers for the last three school years.
In 2022, Aspen View had 18 students placed in the program, with the majority being in trade-related environments. That number increased to 40 in 2023, and so far, 29 students have found jobs in 2024, although Bilton said that number doesn’t include summer students.
The data is also tracked individually by school, and while certain careers are consistent across Aspen View — welding and medical work are always popular — communities have more unique needs. Multiple students in Boyle were interested in business marketing work, and Thorhild had a student interested in dentistry.
“Help is always needed,” said Bilton. “How do we find the opportunities for them? CAREERS does a lot of work on that, but you know your communities. If you have any ideas for potential ideas in key positions and areas … let me know. We can help take that cold call and make it into a warm call.”
Depending on the industry, it isn’t always as simple as finding a company willing to take on students. Bilton said AHS takes a hands-off approach, preferring she works with local health care centres, but the end result sees few students getting summer jobs.
“There’s the part of me that says, ‘Yes, absolutely start writing them letters,’ and there’s the part of me that knows they’ve told me I can’t approach an AHS person,” said Bilton. “Even with RhPA (Rural health Professions Action Plan), for as long as we had the positions, we limited each school to giving us three positions.”
Bilton added AHS’s removal of volunteer positions as another obstacle for getting the students health care experience.
“They think this is what they want, and I hope they do, but I want them to be in a position where when they’re in their first year of a Bachelor of Science, that they don’t leave that and go somewhere else,” said Bilton. “I want those cohorts to be full and robust as I get older and crustier.”
Competition with college students was a third health care related struggle Bilton listed — many clinics, including physiotherapists and chiropractors, get university students who need to complete practicum hours in order to graduate.
“Almost every health care professional has to do summers when they aren’t in school for free taking their practicum time. That’s when I try and put out a high school student and say, ‘But would you pay my high school student that hasn’t had any post-secondary training $13-15 an hour?’” said Bilton.
