Grade 8’s go to Work - Opportunity to Job Shadow
Grade 8’s go to Work - Opportunity to Job Shadow
In an effort to make elementary school students more familiar with some of the course offerings in secondary school, three grade eight students from St. Gabriel’s Elementary School were given the opportunity to job shadow three grade 12 OYAP students from Assumption College over a two day period at their work placements.
Danielle Desjardins job shadowed Paul Hoo, who is placed in the Millwrighting department at BML Multi trades. James McKechnie went to Metro Freightliner to job shadow Nick Holt. Ainsley Headley spent two afternoons job shadowing Marqus Daniel at Speekezzies Café and Wine Bar.
The grade eight students had the chance to interact with the grade twelve students to discover more about the experiential learning programs at high school. The elementary students observed the OYAP students complete their daily tasks and had the opportunity to inquire about their reasons for taking Co-op/OYAP and what the benefits of experiential learning programs were to the students in preparation for the future.
The following week, the entire grade eight class at St. Gabriel’s was given an interactive summary of the experience, in which both host OYAP students and guest job shadowing students recounted their experiences and the benefits they experienced through discovering a career first hand.
Danielle Desjardins stated that the two day experience gave her the chance to learn something new and to experience a career that she had never considered. James McKechnie was overwhelmed by the size of the freight truck engines and had never had the chance to get that close to the inner workings of a transport truck. Ainsley Headley discovered that pizza making is a lot more about technique and practice than he had first thought.
After the presentation, the students were treated to pizza and had the chance to interact and ask questions of the OYAP students. “I really wished I could have had the chance to be involved in this”, stated Justin Gervais, a grade eight student at St. Gabriel’s.
