When Mackenzie Wells returns to school in January, she’ll get some real life experience thanks to a recent virtual opportunity.
The second-year Educational Assistant – Special Needs Support (EA-SNS) student secured a paid co-op work term as an EA with a local school board for the Winter Term. The career-boosting gig came after Wells participated with her classmates in an online networking event with 11 local organizations, agencies and school boards to find program placements that could turn into permanent positions after graduation.
In her case, Wells not only gets a lucrative paid work term to count toward her diploma, she’ll also have casual work when she’s done school next spring. Both are stepping stones toward her dream job of helping young students succeed, which came to be after a friendship growing up with a boy with Down Syndrome.
“He’s the reason I want to be an EA because I want to be able to put smiles on the faces of children in the classroom every day,” Wells said.
But first, she had to prove herself at the networking event, using interview and other soft skills she learned this term in her Personal Development in the Workplace course.
Before the online meet and greet, students were required to learn about the participating agencies, update their resumes, then dress for success online.
In some cases, students booked interviews or were interviewed on the spot for placements and received immediate feedback. Everyone was required to use the experience to complete class assignments.
“It’s such a big opportunity because they’re giving you the opportunity to get to know them and you have a better chance of a job,” Wells said. “It was super important to me personally because with the school boards, I got interviews booked that day, so it exposes you to them and gets your name out there.”
It has the same effect on participating agencies, too.
For Tracy Foisey, human resources manager at Bethesda Community Services, the networking event gives her the chance to showcase the opportunities that exist working with adults with special needs, which some students don’t consider when they start the program.
“It gives them a snapshot of the great things that can happen when working with adults with disabilities,” Foisey said. “It’s give them the opportunity to see what frontline staff do, build rapport with continued support and give them a sense of what the position is about.
“I like (these events) because it gives me the opportunity to put Bethesda out there,” she added. “We’ve been around 75 years but there are a lot of people who don’t know about our organization. I hope by putting Bethesda out there and helping them get to know us, I can potentially hire students.”
The District School Board of Niagara found 18 EA candidates thanks to the event, noted Tracey Krysa, senior manager of support staff in the board’s human resources services department. That translates into critical support through the winter and beyond.
“It gives us that stability that we have people entering into the school system in May (when students finish the program) and hopefully taking as many casual shifts as they can come May,” Krysa said.
It’s also a thrill to mentor and support students, and help them “kick-off” their careers, she added.
This is the second year students and agencies have participated in the networking event virtually. Previously, it happened in person, which Wells said she would have preferred.
Still, there have been benefits to moving online, explained Prof. Ann Marie Raos. Networking virtually has enabled more agencies and students to attend the event, and learn collectively about each other. And that means more potential employer-employee matches.
“When you’re in person, you have to go table to table versus virtually where everybody gets to hear what an organization does,” Raos said. “It’s a far more collaborative environment.”
