Why Join the Let’s Talk Careers Competition?
by Janice Hewitt on 10 Nov, 2020
You know that feeling when you find out that someone has been talking about you behind your back? Maybe you felt your ears burn? Maybe it’s just a sneaking suspicion… Recently some friends of ours started talking behind our back and, well, we can’t stop smiling!
Yes, this might be a bit of a humblebrag, but it’s great to hear from partners, teachers, and students about why they participate in the Let’s Talk Careers Competition. Luckily, our friends weren’t trying to hide anything. Instead, they filmed the whole conversation so that you could benefit.
Watch the full video, or read on for some excerpts about the benefits of participating in the competition.
Here’s a bit of a play-by-play if you’d like to get the gist of the conversation.
First, we heard from the Let’s Talk Science President, Bonnie Schmidt. Let’s Talk Science is dedicated to helping raise career awareness in young people and, in particular, educating students about opportunities in STEM. We’ve been partnering with Let’s Talk Science on the Let’s Talk Careers competition for 4 years, with the shared mission of helping young people explore careers.
Why Does Let’s Talk Science Keep Coming Back for More?
As Bonnie says,
A few years ago we met up with the ChatterHigh team and loved the platform! So, for several years Let’s Talk Science has been teaming up with ChatterHigh to produce this competition that takes young people in a gamified, personalized way to explore wildly diverse career opportunities.
Because young people get involved on a daily basis, pursuing and exploring all different kinds of careers, the system gets to know them better. So, as the competition goes on, not only are they finding out about lots of different career opportunities, the system is starting to play to some of the interests that they have personally. So at the end of 30-40 days of the competition, they’re unlocking these amazing reports about things that may be appealing to them. They’re learning about careers they may never have heard of before!
Bonnie Schmidt, President, Let’s Talk Science
Our newest partner, bringing with them a breadth of experience in educating and raising career awareness for skilled trades, shared some insight into why they joined us this year.
Skills / Compétences Canada CEO Shaun Thorson Explains Their Digital Pivot
We’re taking things online. We were not able to host some of our face-to-face activities in the spring of 2020 and have pivoted to look at how we distribute information online…The Chatterhigh platform is a competition and we believe that competition does drive stronger levels of engagement. So, we really love the platform and the opportunity to work with Let’s Talk Science
Shaun Thorson, CEO, Skills / Compétences Canada
Learn more about Skills / Compétences Canada here.
Competition participants (and past winners) piped in as well with their take on why the competition and the platform is a valuable tool for schools.
Paul Gill, Counsellor from WJ Mouat Secondary Loves Seeing Students Get Engaged in Career Exploration
ChatterHigh is a really valuable tool that we use as teachers in our classroom in teaching career life education and career life connections 12. It’s a neat tool for kids to get involved in because it gets them engaged – the competition piece. We have kids searching careers, and then they start asking questions. They start seeking information. Asking ‘How do I sign up for this program?’ and ‘Am I taking the right classes?’
Paul Gill, Counsellor, WJ Mouat Secondary
We love to hear that use of the platform sparks a conversation in the classroom and gets students thinking about the next steps that they need to take in order to pursue a newly discovered career pathway.
But, importantly, what do the students think?
Competitors Navjot and Kiran are All About the Bragging Rights
The students at WJ Mouat were so dedicated last year that Navjot even commented that she completed the quiz over the weekend and holidays. It certainly worked, as the school turned out an incredible result!
It’s a big thing to know that you’ve won something out of all Canadian schools.
Navjot G, Student
I really like the competition and prize part of it. It really did drive me to do it. I liked that we had a chance to donate points and give back to the community.
Kiran D, Student
But, it’s not all about winning prizes and national recognition. As Navjot explains,
We only know about a couple of careers like a lawyer, police officer or doctor… I am interested in science and math and I thought it was just a doctor or engineer but when I did ChatterHigh, it would tell me there are different types of engineering like Aeronautical engineering. That’s something I feel like I’d be interested in and I only learnt about that after ChatterHigh….Now if I go into my portfolio I can see that there’s many different types of science-related careers or math-related careers that I could do and I had no clue these even existed.
Navjot G, Student
So, why participate in the Let’s Talk Careers Competition?
It works to raise career awareness among young people.
It’s digital and a good alternative to in-person events when those may not be possible.
It provides valuable insight for kids and helps guide them in future choices.
It’s competitive and fun!
The fall Let’s Talk Careers Competition is running now, and it’s not too late to start exploring career options with your students. We will also be running a spring competition from April 12 to May 21, 2021. Find more information about the competition here. Or, get quizzing by creating an account here!
Oh, and by the way, we’d love to hear what you think about the Let’s Talk Careers Competition. So, feel free to drop a note in the comments below!