Cruisin’

Spring is the time when the ice flows out the river, the duck come to gabble about nest building and egg care and I make the annual attempt to restore order to the museum in my attic. This year, I sorted far enough to unearth artifacts which had been stored there since before we came to live under this particular attic.

Old magazines, slightly chewed by whatever critters find such things digestible, are so nostalgic. Remember those swooping hair styles that took so much work to achieve? And the cars, angular and covered with triangles and circles, two-tone - remember them? I no longer know anyone who would want to restore a 1963 Ford Galaxie. Still, I wasn't strong enough to throw out those car magazines.

I ended up taking them to the autobody shop at the local campus of the Nova Scotia Community College. I reasoned someone there would cherish them as relics or have the necessary detachment to file them in the garbage can. I know... you can find lots of pictures of old cars on the internet, but there are some young people who understand the digital record could disappear tomorrow, aren't there? A young woman, an apprentice in autobody repair, led me through the corridors to the shop.

When I was her age, no one would have suggested to me I might like doing restoration work on vehicles. Actually, only four career paths seemed open to high school graduates in those days: teaching, nursing, "secretarying" and retailing; but I strongly suspect I could have been a pretty good autobody mechanic! In these times when people change occupations and careers many times over a life span, so many options are open choice itself becomes overwhelming.

The right fit in a job or career has become more important than ever. While almost all work requires a comfort level with computer use, and literacy and numeracy skills are essential, temperament and personal interest play a stronger role than ever before. Over the past couple of decades, some helpful research has helped us make sense of all the permutations and combinations now available to us.

When my son was in high school, he had access to www.careercruising.com www.careercruising.com/> . This was great fun! We could play with the quizzes and interest inventories to explore fields in which he might be successful, "interview" people who actually did that work and look at the places where he could go for training. This site is still on the internet, but there is a fee for using it unless you belong to a group that subscribes to it.

The Department of Education has a similar set up on its ednet -and it's FREE! Now I can explore it with my 13-year-old. There are quizzes that will line up your skills and preferences with occupations to explore and lots of tips and information to help students of any age (we're all life-long learners, right?) get a handle on the choices and possibilities.

Weblinks:

http://careeroptions.ednet.ns.ca/Home.aspx