CMA’s Work Placement Program – A Student Perspective

As in years past, CMA’s grade 10 and 11 students participated in a 4 day work placement as part of their Career Life Connections courses. Students take on the responsibility of finding their work placement by contacting potential employers themselves. This is a new skill for most and one that will serve them well in the future. Reaching out to adults they do not know can be a daunting task for many teenagers. We are extremely proud of our students who pushed through their nerves, made the calls, and secured incredibly rewarding work placements with employers like the City of Delta, RMOW, GNAR Inc., Audain Art Museum, BC Greens, Sea to Sky Physio, West Vancouver Police Department, Skin Focus, and Geo Capital just to name a few.
Besides refining their communications skills, the primary objectives for students include gaining exposure to a field of interest, gaining a sense of what the working environment is like, connecting with professionals in the field, learning about career pathways, and practicing workplace skills.
Here is what a few of our students shared with their Career Life Connections teachers as a reflection of their Work Placement:

My highlight from this experience with the District of Squamish is speaking at the Biosphere conference about youth engagement and my group’s ideas for getting more youth onboard. It was incredibly nerve-racking speaking in front of so many people but afterwards, there were a bunch of people coming up to me saying how amazing I was (humble I know) and how inspirational seeing someone my age so involved in our planet’s issues. My biggest challenge was probably managing my nerves, I got in my head before my work placement and I was so nervous going into it but once I got there it was a lot smaller scale than I had imagined which helped calm me down. Also, I get really nervous when public speaking so it was a challenge, but I’m glad I pushed myself because it has helped me be more confident when speaking. I learned that I’m better at talking to people and shaking hands than I thought I was. To work in the ministry I observed that you need to have fairly good people skills, which I thought communication was one of my weaker spots but I always took the opportunity to speak whenever I could which I think improved me as a speaking, and I learned that it doesn’t have to be one of my weaker spots if I just put a little time into it. 

At Geo Capital, I learned about global equities. How to choose a company to invest in. How to trade stocks, when it’s a good time to buy certain stocks and when it’s not, how to code for the company and for the last step I learned how the commercial part of the company worked and how it is to find clients by selling the company ideas in person. I got to do some trades and it was really cool to see the whole process from the start to finish. I bought Zoetis and sold Booking, Zoetis is a global animal health company and Booking is a AirBnB and hotel booking company. A challenge from my experience was learning how to read a company’s background story to see if they are a good equity to buy and knowing how much to invest/when to increase or decrease money invested in the company. I learned that I can adapt to new environments very easily. I just have to get in a rhythm where I know what I will be up for and how I will be able to take feedback from my co-workers. In these 4 days I had to ask a lot of questions since the global investing area of work was so new to me and I learned to not hesitate when I needed to ask questions.

For this year’s work placement I was shadowing a Dental assistant, General dentist, and a Paradotics(Gum, and bone specialist) at Tapestry Dental. Mainly shadowing fillings, crown implants, as well as gum grafting. My highlight was on the last day of my work-placement I was able to help with an implant surgery which was really great. A challenge I experienced during my work-placement was standing for about 6-7 hours straight a day. What I learnt about myself during that week was that I have an interest in the dental field which is great. Overall I had a great experience doing my work-placement at Tapestry Dental as well shadowing  great people, and learning so many new things related to dental, and communication.