The ‘try before you buy’ method

When you’re a teenager, choosing a career can be a little intimidating. After all, what happens if you make the wrong choice and end up in a career you can’t stand?
That’s one of the reasons a co-op program can be helpful.
“It’s a chance to try on a career,” said teacher Nancy Gillon, who monitors Fort Frances High School’s co-op program.
For Kevin Cherry, a grade 12 student who is contemplating a future as a freelance writer, getting a taste of what that life might be like in the short-term is important before he commits to something in the long-term.
He noted his placement at the Fort Frances Times is going to help him decide whether he’ll move on to a post-secondary institution before he starts shelling out big dollars for tuition.
“I know that college and university have their benefits but nowadays it’s hard to find a job even with the college and university [degree],” he reasoned, admitting he didn’t want to be saddled with a large student loan if he wasn’t going to have a job when he graduated.
Though he’s in an office with writers, Cherry opted to be placed as a graphic artist because he’s interested in all aspects of putting a newspaper together.
“[And] I’m hoping to gain work experience,” he added.
“It’s experience,” agreed Nicole Peters, a grade 11 student doing her first placement at the Fort Frances Public Library. “It’s like getting your foot in the door.”
Both Peters and Anita Tucker know exactly what they want to do–and both say their co-ops have helped reaffirm their choices.
Tucker, who’s doing her placement at the Nor-West Animal Clinic here, plans to go on to five years of veterinary school.
Right now, she performs many of the veterinary technician duties.
“I expected it to be like this,” Tucker said of the work, adding if she showed up early, she could watch the morning surgeries.
Meanwhile, Peters can’t remember a time when she didn’t want to work in a library.
“This is what I want to do when I graduate,” said Peters, who plans to get her four-year Library Sciences degree. “It’s more work than I thought. But I still love it.”
But while the two-credit co-op program can help clinch a career, it also can turn some students off one.
“Some also say ‘This is definitely not for me,’ and that’s just as beneficial,” Gillon noted, because students have a chance to look over other options before they’ve committed time and dollars in training and further education.
That was why Fort High started a co-op program in 1970, making it the first in Ontario to offer one. And Gillon said interest throughout the district has continued to grow, adding 60-90 senior students (grade 11 through OAC) enroll each semester.
And each year, there’s an added interest from different workplaces across the district.
“That is so encouraging that co-op also has benefits for the employer as well,” Gillon said.
But employers also have a great deal of responsibility. They must commit three hours a day for an entire semester for a student, and provide them with training and support.
They also help evaluate the students’ progress.
In return, the co-op monitors–two full-time and one part-time–do all they can to ensure employers are getting the right student for the job. Co-op applications, including two teacher references, are filled out when students choose their courses for the next year.
Then the monitors interview each student.
Some placements, such as the OPP, prefer to select their own students. Gillon said they provide them with a list of the best possible candidates, who then have to go through an interview process before a number of the local police officers.
That process in itself is a learning experience, she noted.
“It is very much subject-related,” Gillon said. “And it’s a long screening process. Very few people get turned down, though.”
“[But] co-op isn’t for everyone,” she added.