All year, the University of Guelph-Humber’s Career and Placement Services team helps UofGH students set and pursue their career goals with insightful advice on job-searching, interviewing, and networking. UofGH’s Career and Placement Services recently went out into the community to help lend that expertise to young job-seekers at the Yonge Street Mission.
The Yonge Street Mission is a not-for-profit that seeks to help people from all walks of life endure and eventually climb out of poverty. The Youth Job Connection, funded by Employment Ontario, aims to help youth aged 18-29 who face employment barriers including poverty, homelessness and disability with a program that builds personal management, job skills and educational enhancement
UofGH’s team worked one-on-one with young people to help shape their resumes and provide any other career counselling or advice that could help them find their professional path.
“These are youth who are looking for support,” said UofGH Career Coordinator Allison Scully. “The whole team was excited to give back to the community and help out in an area that comes easily to us, but might not for other people.”
The Yonge Street Mission has been a valuable field placement partner in the past, so the pairing was a natural one.
Scully points out that oftentimes young people might not realize how valuable their skillset or knowledge is to a potential employer, particularly if they have struggled through a long period of unemployment. Sometimes, young people just need to know how to frame the skills they already have.
“It’s dealing with youth who may not have been taught how to create documents to market themselves and they may not understand what skills they have,” Scully said.
“We’re helping them realize that they do have skills and benefits to employers. We just help them figure out what those skills are and how best to put them on a piece of paper.”
