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STORY AND VIDEO: Find Your Fit arrives in Rupert

Charles Hays Secondary School students were once again the beneficiaries of WorkBC’s Find Your Fit travelling tour
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WorkBC’s Find Your Fit tour instructors demonstrate the 3D printer shown off at CHSS on Oct. 25.


Charles Hays Secondary School students were once again the beneficiaries of WorkBC’s Find Your Fit travelling tour, which helps place students, and even some adults, into careers they think they might be good at.

It’s at least the second year in a row that the tour has reached the confines of Kaien Island, and tour manager Rachel Thorne reported that close to 450 students visited the various stations set up throughout the day on Oct. 25.

“There was a wide array of interests represented in that group,” she said.

“We always have a lot of interest at the tech table. That’s where our 3D printer is and it’s kind of the centrepiece of the activation. So kids are always really fascinated by that. It’s some of the newest technology available and that’s always very exciting. But we also had a great deal of interest in the trades, including quite a few young women, which is fantastic.”

The activation had a nurse and nurse’s aid station, as well as an electrician, tech, truck, carpenter and LNG stations, among others.

WorkBC representatives helped students throughout the school day find what career would be best for them, and then helped the broader community from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. after school ended at Charles Hays. The tour manager commented that not only does her team help students, but also post-secondary age students, and even adults wanting to change careers.

Prince Rupert is just one stop on the tour for Thorne and her team, who are five weeks into their tour of the entire province, which will run until March.

The program is a few years old, and one that the tour manager is excited to bring to kids across the province.

“So often in education, with a lack of resources or lack of funding it’s extremely difficult for schools to provide young people with the opportunity to actually try something out,” Thorne said.

“Oftentimes students will be hearing about employment opportunities, but without ever having had the chance to try it, they’re not sure if they’d be good at it or if they have the skills or be comfortable in that kind of job. By actually having these hands-on interactive, experiential opportunities, young people often discover that they’re good at things that they didn’t even know they were good at.”

An occupation skills wall at each station highlights the traits that each employment sector would involve and students match those traits with their own personal qualities. So a good puzzle-solver would identify with industries that look for detail-oriented workers, Thorne said.

“When [our team] was in school there was no program like this and so we all graduated and flew by the seat of our pants trying to figure out what we thought we would be good at, and found our way through trial and error, but it’s really been a privilege to be part of something like this,” she said.

For more information, visit www.findyourfittour.ca