Skills Work!® On The Road - Ottawa

Charting New Territory:  Firsts at Skills Canada - Ontario

I am one of the newer Liaison Officers, having started my career with Skills Canada - Ontario just a few months ago, right out of university.  So far I am really enjoying it.  One of the reasons is that Skills Canada - Ontario has offered me many opportunities to experience new things in both my personal and professional life.  So far, most of them have been great.

As you may have gathered by reading previous entries, driving is a very big part of the job.   One of the first things I did after being hired was go out and buy my first car.  As a young, naive girl getting my first licence picture taken I thought owning a car would be awesome.  Sadly I was wrong.  I must admit that after being an avid OC Transpo passenger (Ottawa’s public transit system) for four years, owning a car does have advantages.  However, since as gas hit above 1.20$ recently in the nation’s capital, owning a car has proven to have a challenging side!

One of my favourite things about this job, and the biggest part, is delivering the “Skills Work!® What’s Out There?” presentation.  I will never forget the first time I stood in front of a group of students and had 60 pairs of eyes on me, waiting to hear what I had to say.  What a great experience!  Yes, it was slightly intimidating to have these young people staring at me, and not really knowing what they were thinking.   For me, it is so much fun. It is probably a good thing I love to talk!  I was the girl in the back corner of the class room that teachers were always shushing, and it’s finally coming in handy!  

It seems to me that teachers often ask “Doesn’t this job get repetitive?”  While it is true that the presentation is always the same, the students are all so different that they make the presentation different every time.  They ask different questions and they are interested in different aspects of the presentation.  

I will never forget during one of my first presentations a boy raised his hand and shared with the class that his “life goal is to be on Jersey Shore.”  After this was said, another boy looked at him and said “Have you no ambition?  Aim higher...like Big Brother or something.”  This sparked a debate about which reality show was the best.  The result seemed to be a tie between Survivor and Project Runway.

Standing in front of the class, I had to think of away to bring us back on topic to do so I explained to students that acting was not part of the skilled trades and technologies, but they could look into TV Video Production, Entertainment Industry Power Technicians, or even construction workers who build movie, television and theatre sets.  Presentations have been a really good first time experience.

I think my favourite first has been the Elementary Cardboard Boat race.  It was so much fun!  It was amazing to see all the different designs and approaches.    Even more impressive was to see a boat made of cardboard hold 730lbs, and designed by 12- and 13-year-olds!  

The best thing about the race was the kids were not overly competitive, they really just wanted to see other teams do well.  Kids were more than happy to jump into other teams’ boats during the weight challenge to help out those other teams.  I was impressed to hear the students cheer for opposing teams that did well, and to see cooperation even amongst opposing teams.

In a nutshell, those are my first few months with Skills Canada – Ontario – lots of presentations and tons of really great first time experiences.  My next first:  The Ontario Technological Skills Competition in May!

Emily Collard,
Bilingual Liaison Officer