On Nov. 12, Niagara College hosted the fifth annual Career/Volunteer Info Fair for students in the Educational Assistant – Special Needs Support (EA-SNS) and Autism and Behavioural Science (ABS) programs.
The job fair hosted 16 employers from across the Niagara region as well as one employer from Hamilton.
“We have definitely added more agencies [each year],” said Amie Huisman, field placement coordinator for NC’s School of Community Services. “We have one from Hamilton. They’re travelling to come see us.”
Laurie Blake, EA-SNS program coordinator, anticipated seeing 85 per cent of students in the EA-SNS program attend the job fair. First-year students had the opportunity to seek out volunteer opportunities while second-year students handed out resumes in search of part-time employment opportunities.
“This [experience] helps me figure out what I want to do after graduation. I’m not sure if I want to take the support worker or the EA route. And it’s also nice because I am looking for somewhere to fill my third placement,” said Chanel Gotthardt, a second-year EASNS student. “If somewhere is willing to hire you, you can use that as your placement.”
“There are opportunities for students before they graduate to work on a part-time basis before graduation,” said Blake. “The employers actually ask for us to do this. Over the years, we have had them come into our courses and into our programs but we had so many requests that we decided to run a job fair for them.”
While students use the opportunity to learn more about gaining experience in the field, potential employers search for students who would be a good fit to their organization. Wayne Cleary, supervisor of residential at Community Living Grimsby, Lincoln and West Lincoln, said that organizations seeking support workers keep an eye out for students with schedule flexibility and a philosophy of person-centred thinking.
“Support workers of the past think ‘what’s best for the person,’ and they do that,” said Cleary. “What a support worker of the future will do is see what that person thinks is best for themselves and then support them in that way.”
The EA-SNS program, 200 students strong, is the only program in the province that has a dual focus.
“We train for both EA and support worker,” said Blake.
“Some of our employees just graduated from [NC’s EA-SNS program] and some of our students are currently in the program,” said Jan Brickell, client and family connections coordinator at Person Centered Care Inc.
