Education in Canada

Teens have to decide on the career that they want to pursue and their college major, not necessarily in that order. Deciding upon a college major is a difficult task by itself and takes time. Similarly, deciding upon a career path is a process that should start when the teen is still in high school and continue as that person moves into college. The reason being that career choices are fluid and young people are bound to discover new things about themselves, their likes and dislikes and skills as they go along though studies.

Selecting the right career is never an easy matter. Career planning is a process that involves several steps, particularly when it is for a teen. Both universities and business organizations have designed programs for teenagers to assist them in identifying suitable options and making a right choice of career. Such guidance can be obtained by making a payment from a university, by a student as well as any member of the public. The guide can include a questionnaire and information about several careers. The questionnaire helps the person to narrow the choices based on several criteria. A program that has been designed well could also throw light on several career choices that the person may not have known about, effectively broadening his or her horizon. Also, as young people are not clear about the growth path of different careers, they also gain clarity on this issue.

Career counselors and teenage counselors have always said that young people and college students must select a career based on their own interest and skills, not due to pressure of family or peers or some image that may have of a particular career. Thus the so called ‘best’ careers may not always be the right choice. Career planning for teens is a process that will try to dissuade them from such a career unless it suits the individual for reasons mentioned earlier. So many websites and magazines may list hottest jobs, best jobs for collegiates and those with highest salary and perks. However, this is not the right way to decide upon a career and hot jobs should not become an automatic choice for a teen or a young job seeker.

The process of career planning for teens exists to make sure that they select the career path and college program that is best for them as an individual. A lot of young believe, quite wrongly, that they will be stuck with the career choice that they make now, through out their life. Nothing could be more different. People change their career at several stages during their life. So, a career that is chosen now due to a college major or a training program can be changed later. However, career planning for teens goes a long way in ensuring that there is not much heart burn later.

Most often, jobseekers spend a lot of their time writing the perfect resume and cover letters and conducting research while preparing for personal interviews.

The most important part of a job search process-building references-is often neglected. Generally, employers do not conduct a detailed background search; however, they do contact some of your references. Employers are making an investment when they hire you; and, as with all investments, they want to be careful before making a decision.

Having good references will be the deciding factor in your getting the job. In this article, we will discuss how to develop references that will help you succeed in your job search.

Maintain Contact with Colleagues and Business Associates

In your present job you will develop professional relationships and friendships that will last a long time. When there is a slump in the job market, it is likely that a number of highly qualified and experienced individuals who are displaced will be actively seeking jobs.

In the event you are one of them, it is recommended that you start a networking group of your former colleagues. This network of contacts will assist each member in the group in landing a job.

Building Personal Relationships

Building personal relationships with coworkers and associates is necessary to build a strong and resourceful network. Recently unemployed people will have a wealth of information and contacts from their past jobs that can be tapped when looking for a new job.

If your network has ten members and each member has ten contacts, then you have a databank of a hundred people. Through personal relationships, you can increase the number of people that you can network with.

Before Leaving Your Present Job, Ask Your Colleagues If They Will Serve As References

If your colleagues or managers are willing to serve as references, get their contact information and keep in touch with them on the phone or via email from time to time.

Staying in touch with your coworkers and other colleagues will also help you get business for your new employer as your colleagues land new jobs in different companies.

Make sure you have the complete information for each reference and give a copy of your latest resume to all your references. Your references should be aware of your achievements, skills, and the position you are seeking.

Saving Work Samples

Your day-to-day activities and duties should never get in the way of your future plans. Keep samples of your work; this will increase your résumé’s credibility. This will also help you build a portfolio. It is recommended that you maintain a file of all your samples at home.

Regularly stay in touch with your references. If you are unable to locate them, seek the help of the phone book or the directory assistance service.

In the unlikely event that you don’t have any references, you can use clients for whom you have freelanced in the past as references, or organizations that you worked for as a volunteer.

Once your job search is over, be sure to thank your references for their assistance.

Choosing a career can be difficult, after all, you can’t really know what a job will involve until you’ve actually done it. But if you need to spend years training before you can try the career, choosing one in the first place could be a problem.

So, how can you answer the question “What career is right for me?” before you embark on a long and possibly expensive training or degree course?

Career decisions are often made quickly, often without enough background information, simply because schools and colleges don’t focus on providing advice on a wide range of careers, and young people don’t know how to access this information themselves.

This pattern is often repeated later in life, when someone decides to change career. Decisions are often made due to factors such as salary, perks and the possibility of job security or promotion. Although these are all good points and need to be considered when making a career choice, they should not be the main considerations.

Job satisfaction is one of the most important aspects of anyone’s career. After all, you spend a lot of time at work: up to 40 hours a week, in some cases more, for around 40 years of your life.

However, job satisfaction means different things to different people and so one of the first steps in deciding which career is right for you, is to decide exactly what job satisfaction means to you.

What do you want most from your career? Do you want to work with people or with computers or with words or figures - or a combination of these? Or perhaps something totally different. Are you passionate about animals or self sufficiency?

What activities or feelings are essential for you to feel fulfilled at work? Would you like to use specific skills, such as languages or teamwork or writing? Do you feel good when you are helping people, learning new skills or teaching other people how to do something?

Once you’ve made a list of the most important skills and activities should be part of your job profile, you can then look for careers which fit. In some cases, the choices will be obvious, but many skills can be used in a vast range of different jobs and so you might be surprised at the range of possibilities open to you.

Although currently only a minority of states actually require pharmacy technician continuing education, more and more states have been adding this requirement. Regardless of state requirements, any pharmacy technician that is certified by the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) needs to complete 20 hours of continuing education every two years in order to get recertified. There are many options available for pharmacy technicians to complete their continuing education requirements.

The National Pharmacy Technician Association (NPTA) has accredited continuing education programs for pharmacy technicians available in a variety of different formats including online options, in print options, in person options, and recorded options. These pharmacy technician continuing education programs have been accredited by the Accreditation Council on Pharmacy Education (ACPE).

Once you have selected one of the pharmacy technician CE options available, you either read or watch the course material, and then you return to the website to take the course test. You need to score at least 70% in order to get credit for the course. If you receive a passing score you can print your certificate showing you have completed that pharmacy tech continuing education course. If you do not receive a high enough score to pass the course the first time, you can go over the materials again and try the test once more at no additional cost.

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) also has pharmacy tech CE courses available. They can be taken through online courses, reading printed matter, or podcasts. Like the pharmacy technician continuing education courses of the NPTA, once you have finished studying the material you must take a test and get a passing score in order to get the continuing education credits.

Other organizations the provide pharmacy technician CE courses include JER Group, Inc. (through online workshops), American College of Clinical Pharmacy, Baxter Healthcare Corporation, The California Pharmacists Association, Drug Information Association, Drug Store News, DrugTopics.com, Free CE, George Washington University Medical Center, The Iowa Pharmacists Association, MediCom Worldwide, Inc., Medscape.com, the Meniscus Educational Institute, National Community Pharmacists Association, Oregon State Pharmacists Association, PharmaCE, Pharmacy Connects, Pharmacy Times, Power-Pak C.E., Professional CEU, P*ceutics Institute, QuickTestPrep.com, RxSchool, RxSuccess Pharmacy Technician Training Programs, RXTechSchool.com, Serono Symposia USA, State University of New York at Buffalo, Temple University School of Pharmacy, U.S. Pharmacist, and the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education.

Some people don’t think beyond college tuition when planning for college. Stop right there, it’s about to get more costly. But there are things you can do to save on these additional expenses.

College room and board must play a major role in planning for your college tuition. Your college room and board will be determined largely by which college he or she decides on. Many colleges require freshmen to stay on campus if their families don’t live locally. Many of the colleges also have a mandatory meal plan for freshmen as well.

College Dormitories usually come with a meal plan, sometimes this plan is optional and nearly all dormitories have on site security.

There are also possibly Campus Apartments at the college. These apartments normally come with a small kitchen.

You could consider off-site housing or apartments. The college normally organizes these and what you are renting is a bedroom, bathroom and normally living room and kitchen common space between your child and 2-3 other people the apartment complex rents to. This could turn out to be more cost effective than staying on campus. Most apartments rent on a 12-month lease. If your child plans on coming home for the summer, you may want to consider asking for a 9-month lease or subletting in the summer.

Now that we have living quarters arranged, it’s time to look for a computer.

Before you go to the expense of getting your child a new computer, first check with the schools computer center and find out which operating system the school uses. To make things easier, you’ll want to make sure you pick the same operating system.

Sometimes a University will have an on-campus computer store where students are offered a discount of about 10% on new computers. Shop wisely. Check local computer stores and the Internet to make sure you are getting the best deal for your money.

You may also wish to consider a laptop as the student can take this to class or lectures. Plus, laptops have come down in price substantially.

And while laptop prices have gone down, textbook prices have gone through the roof. Most campus bookstores sell used books at a lesser price. Check through the book before you purchase it and make sure there are no obvious rips, tears, or missing pages. Also make sure it has not been so heavily highlighted and doodled on that it can be read.

Your student can save even more money by selling his or her books back to the college campus bookstore. Also, before deciding where to purchase your books, there are online sources that sell discounted student books.

How innovative are you? You can actually get paid for your child to live off campus if you so desire. Not only will you save on his or her boarding costs but make a profit too. If you are financially fit, consider purchasing a house near campus. You can then hire your child as the building manager in exchange for free rent. And don’t forget to rent out the extra bedrooms.

Planning for college tuition is always frustrating because, as parents, there are things we simply forget to think about. Our goal is normally to make sure our child gets the best college degree and experience possible. Not to mention, it was a whole lot different when we went to school. But the opportunity is just as large for your student to be more accomplished and get a better job on the outside world.

You want to attend college, but you need help choosing one. There are too many colleges available to attend. So where can you find them? Which one is the right one? And what do you need to pay attention to?

First of all there does not have to be one top college or university that fits your needs, there might be more. Many people switched from one top college to another but did not see a major difference.

This situation does not always happen, as some students transferred from a community college to a university and they liked the university so much they wished they had skipped the community college.

You can look in your area to find the right college to attend. The advantage of doing this is that you can visit and see if you like the campus. This is important because you do not want to attend a college you do not like.

Another thing you can do is look online to find colleges. It is fast, easy, and you do not have to waste gas by driving to a campus. The internet has made it really easy to get the information you need. You can also find accredited online colleges from the comfort at your home.

The whole process is quite easy: look online first and find all the options you have in your area online. Narrow it down to a couple and request their information, but don’t make your choice yet.

Once you have found and reviewed the interesting ones, call to make an appointment to talk to an advisor in person; this way you speak to a representative, maybe even some students and you get to visit the college to see if you like it.