Feature: Canadian students looks for early jump on career ideas

VANCOUVER, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Three Canadian teenagers in the coastal seaport city of Vancouver sat on a row of five seats. They were in a deep conversation with professional-looking adults who were sitting across the table.

The teenagers are students, and they were taking part in mock interviews with human resources professionals at the Vancouver Education and Career Fair on Thursday.

The one-day event attracted about 4,000 high school students, job seekers and new immigrants as they searched for their future careers among nearly 90 universities, trade schools and companies.

Now in its 21st season, the fair took place in five cities around the Canadian province of British Columbia, said the event's coordinator Marbie Alura.

"It is all about supporting career pursuits for secondary students, new immigrants, as well as adult learners who are looking to make a career change," she told Xinhua.

"The visitors have a really well-rounded experience because they get to chat with people who can assist them with their studies and also chat with people who will eventually hire them."

At the exhibition booths were representatives from the University of British Columbia, the British Columbia Institute of Technology and the Vancouver Film School. There was also an acting school, a culinary school and the Canadian Armed Forces, seeking recruits.

Alura said most of the students are in grades 10 to 12, but many are younger than that.

According to Alura, more and more schools, employers and industry associations are seeing the importance of reaching out to teenager students early.

"They are recognizing that these students are very keen, they want to be prepared. The are very big on brand recognition," Alura said.

Nearly 25 percent of working-age Canadians have a post-secondary degree, according to Canada's 2016 census. Among them, 17 percent have a bachelor degree and 8 percent have a higher degree.

The unemployment rate of Canadian youth aged 15-24 is now at 11 percent, similar to the United States of 9 percent and Australia of 12 percent, but much lower than European countries such as Spain of 37 percent and Italy of 35 percent, according to Trading Economics, which provides economic data and news from across the world.

Mya Bahesha is a grade-10 student from the Vancouver suburb of Richmond. She said she already knows she wants to be a dentist, but came here to figure out how to make that happen.

"I think it would be a good option to explore the different universities that offer that," she said.

She still needs to figure out what kind of pre-dentistry degree to pursue, and how long her education may take, she said.

Bahesha is joined at the expo by her friend Meena Dhinjal, also a grade-10 student.

"I am probably going into banking," Dhinjal told Xinhua.

She said by the middle of grade 10, most of her peers already have ideas of what they want to do for their post-secondary studies.

"At the beginning of the school year I do not think it is very common for everyone to know, but later in the school year you have to have an idea of what you are going to go into so you can take all the correct classes," she said.

Back at the mock interview stations, the interviews continued.

"We are trying to make them aware of the kind of questions they are going to be faced with," said Kelly Aslanowicz, a chartered human resources professional. "Questions like: what is a great accomplishment you have had in the last few years? What are some of your weaknesses?"

She said many Canadian students have never had a job interview and are not usually prepared for questions like that.

"We are giving them the chance to go through the tough part of it now so that when they have a real job interview, they are more prepared for what those questions will be," she said.

Other elements of the job interview are also very important, she said.

"It is more about the hand shake, the sitting down, the speaking at the appropriate time, using the appropriate tone," Aslanowicz said.

"Not answering a question that you were not asked, for example, and making sure you are speaking about the question that was asked." she added. Enditem