On November 1, 2017, grade nines across Canada were given the opportunity to participate in “Take Our Kids to Work Day.” The grade nines went with their parent(s)/guardian(s) and spent a school day together to learn about their work.
Riverside Secondary grade 9 student, Maela Descamps spent her day with her mom at Port Coquitlam Public Works. “My mom collects data. She is a public work clerk. When someone calls in to file a complaint, she’s the one who sorts all the complaints into a file,” said Descamps. According to Descamps, PoCo set up an event where everyone participates in seeing the types of jobs you can choose. She had spent a total of ten hours with her mom. “I learned that my mom files a lot of paperwork. She’s required to be very neat and precise,” said Descamps.
Riverside Secondary grade nine student, Ella Gaspar, spent her day with her mom at the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), located in down town, Vancouver. “My mom is a Department Mortgage Manager of Credit Support,” said Gaspar. According to Gaspar, her experience was fun. “I got to see her normal workspace and how she works with her colleagues and manage leading a team of people,” said Gaspar. Gaspar interviewed her mom and asked why she thinks it’s important for teens to go to their parents work. “I think it’s important because it gives teenagers a chance to see all the different types of jobs out there, and that there are so many more interesting careers than just traditional types of jobs, such as, doctor, lawyer, engineer and teacher,” said Lisa Sutherland.
Other workers provided students with an idea to students about what their jobs are like at RBC. According to Martha Ramos, the part she enjoys most about her job as a Manager of Client Care, is client interaction. She is someone who is a coach for the service team and deals with customer client concern. According to Sandy Wu, a Mortgage Specialist at RBC, what she enjoys about her job is helping clients achieve their financial goals and being a part of their life to make important decisions such as purchasing their dream home. She has been working at RBC for fifteen years and enjoys her job as well.
Students Gaspar and Descamps have both concluded that their experience was eye opening. According to Descamps and Gaspar, they would not want to have their parents job, despite how fun it was to experience a day at work with them. Sometimes experiencing what it’s like on the job helps you realize what careers you’re interested or disinterested in.
Photo Credits to mulgrave.com