As part of CHASI’s celebration of National Career Month, we asked practicum student Ava Hedblom to share her experiences with Career Mapping, a new tool launched by our research cluster CALL, the Career and Learning for Life Consortium. Check back throughout November to see more Career Month posts!
It is as simple as this: studying as a university or college student has its significant challenges. One challenge many students face is the uncertainty of our futures and what our potential career options may entail. As a university student, I have churned my brain to butter thinking about all the ways I can become qualified to work in my field. Furthermore, as a Media and Communications student, there are many avenues to my career that I can branch out to. However, finding resources rich in this information can be quite scarce. I’ve found myself asking my academic advisor as well as doing a deep dive on LinkedIn to find the answers I seek. But I could never get all the information I needed to make confident decisions, which is why I was immediately intrigued when career mapping first got introduced to me.
So, what exactly is Career Mapping? Career Mapping is a database built into an interactive web-based resource designed to help Liberal Arts prospective students, undergraduates, and graduates explore career options. It even includes specified information such as salary ranges, labour market information, and the most current job titles.
As I played around with these features, I discovered the “Labour Market Information” tab on the page of one of the careers I clicked on. This tab is an excellent feature for students because it provides further in-depth information on your career choice such a description of the career, education requirements, training and skills, labour market statistics, and more. The current labour market information feature connects you to Federal information as well as B.C. and Ontario-specific resources. My understanding is that Career Mapping is working to include access to the provinces as well.
In addition to Career Mapping, my degree has provided me with the preparation to become career ready! Career readiness is an interesting element of Career Mapping because it includes programs that prepare students to develop work habits, transferable knowledge, and employable skills.
My degree has personally provided me with career readiness in the following ways: developing projects in simulation to real life situations, having guest speakers give career/workplace insight, learning different communication channels/mediums, and creatively analyzing and executing projects.
Personally, I believe Career Mapping will take me far in my life and career because it is a tool that I can always reference when I need direction and guidance in future endeavours. Moreover, if you take the time to explore the site, it can help you too.
