In an era of rapid change, stimulated by the COVID-19 pandemic, this generation of university students face great promise and great challenges. This new reality involving online, on-campus and on-demand learning encourages students to consider their employability. Because employment opportunities are shifting, students need to develop new skills and a new mindset for building meaningful careers.
To address this, York’s Career Centre has created the My Career Exploration Guide & Workbook, an interactive, online career tool for current York students and recent graduates. It offers self-assessment and career exploration that students can work through independently and access anytime, anywhere.
Since deciding on a career is not as simple as matching an academic program to an occupation, My Career Exploration Guide encourages students to reflect on their career desires, core competencies, personality, interests, values, traits, abilities and other factors instrumental to making informed career decisions.
This practical and user-friendly tool provides flexibility and self-direction over the nature, timing and course of the learning process. It allows for navigating professional and meaningful careers aligned with who the students are and what they find most interesting, regardless of what they study.
The guide consists of self-paced e-learning modules, and a digital library of additional resources, developed around the following topics:
- My Career Exploration Introduction – this module introduces learning objectives of the guide and the workbook.
- What Can I Do with My Degree? – this is the most common question from students; this module focuses on developing an understanding that a York degree is one of many important assets students bring to their future careers.
- Making My Career Decisions – this module introduces York’s Career Decision-Making Model from the perspective of the career exploration process.
- My Next Steps – this module provides resources and supports available for advancing students’ career education.
Each module provides an introduction to a specific topic followed by an animated video relevant to the subject matter. Select modules offer interactive career self-assessment quizzes, multiple choice and self-reflection questions, as well as a range of curated career exploration resources. Students can navigate the guide and complete activities in the accompanying workbook, which encourages them to develop a career profile and career statement.
The tool is guided by two avatars, Lola and Alfie, who take users through each module while exploring career options in entertaining and engaging ways.
A 'warm welcome' from Lola and Alfie
The guide was developed, with support from the Academic Innovation Fund, by career counsellors – Roma Kozinska, Susan Pogue, Jeanne Decoteau – and Layton Fogah, online learning technologist. It was developed under the auspices of Brendan Schulz, executive director, Student Success.
This online career development tool can be accessed across desktop and mobile devices, with user-friendly modules available on demand 24/7. It is posted on the Career Centre’s Moodle site.
Faculty members, instructors, TAs and staff members who work with students are encouraged to share information about this guide.