EDUNATIONAL & AMGEN Program for Career Planning

In this article, I would like to provide some information about a career planning program introduced and organized by EduNational Canada. EduNational Canada is providing this program in co-ordination and partnership with Amgen. When Turkish Society of Canada first announced this program, I was really excited to see an opportunity for my child which would possibly help him to decide about his career selection when he completes his high school education. We all know that it is a very difficult decision for the students and their families to make informed decisions about the field that they would like to work in order to be successful in their future occupation. Program does not only provide help to students to focus on their career selection process but also presents a lot of information about the new occupations, jobs and working areas continuously coming to the market with the changing needs of the economy and business world.

I would like to start with introducing these 2 organizations with brief information directly taken from their websites.

EDUNATIONAL CANADA

Prepares Canadian and international students for successful career-oriented and international education decisions. EduNational supports visiting international students during their studies, and helps students and their families select the right study program, and manage a student’s education progress.

EduNational provides career planning programs for students from Grades 7 to 12. Using information from psychometric assessments and ability tests, students work with coaches to understand and appreciate their personality, learning style, skill sets, values, interests and abilities. Students and their parents use an integrated database of valuable resources, information and videos to help identify education options, suitable schools and plan a high-value career path. (For more information, please visit www.edunational.ca)

AMGEN

Originally founded in 1980 as AMGen (Applied Molecular Genetics), Amgen pioneered the development of novel and innovative products based on advances in recombinant DNA and molecular biology.

Amgen Canada was founded in 1991 and, in 1992, would launch one of the first biologically derived human therapeutics, NEUPOGEN® (Filgrastim), which became one of the biotechnology industry’s first blockbusters while improving the lives of thousands of Canadians. Since 1991, Amgen Canada has created nearly 400 new jobs and made eight innovative medicines available to Canadian health care providers and patients. Amgen Canada conducts significant numbers of clinical trials in conjunction with leading academic research institutions, hospitals and clinics throughout Canada. (For more information please visit www.amgen.ca)

Before this program was launched in August-2015, several announcements were made by Turkish Society of Canada to inform the public about the program. Program is offered to secondary and high school students (Grade 7 to 12), so they can be prepared for their career search when their high school education is finished.  Only 3 Turkish families decided to participate in this program with several other students from different origins and backgrounds. Main purpose of the program is to help children to “recognize and identify themselves” before they make their choices for their careers. When we say “recognize and identify themselves”, we mean to find out their own personalities, characters, working habits, preferences, approaches to life situations and other problems. This program believes that, in order to make good career choices, students have to know themselves better and find out what kind of persons they are.

To help for this analysis, program offers very detailed web program that must be completed by every student. It includes a sophisticated software program with various modules and students need to answer all the questions by going through all the modules with their own pace and working style. When they finish those modules individually, software is able to obtain some results about their personalities, hobbies, tendencies and interests. This software has many steps which finally ends with the information about current job market, salaries, institutions and organizations looking for new talents, possible job opportunities, and ways to apply for these positions.

Other part of the program, consists in-class seminars organized by EduNational at Amgen building. Every month (except summer time) they invite one professional who has experience in one specific area, business or field of study. Personally I like this step because some families do not have any idea about other professional fields and occupations in the market except some very popular professions like medical, law, engineering, computers etc… At the end of the seminar, students and parents can ask any question to the expert and get some additional information. Last step of this career planning program is going some work places and showing the actual business environment to the students.

I believe this program is going to be helpful to give some idea to the participating children who still do not know which path they have to go.

I would like to convey my sincere thanks to EduNational Canada and Amgen for their organization and efforts to make this program happen. I also would like thank to Turkish Society of Canada for informing Turkish community for this program and providing a continuous support.

Tulin Enbatan

Tülin Enbatan, 1965 Istanbul doğumludur. Eğitimini babasının görevi nedeniyle Anadolu’nun çeşitli illerinde tamamladı. Eskişehir Anadolu Üniversitesi, İşletme Bölümü’nden 1988 yılında mezun oldu. Bilgisayar sektöründe system satış ve kurulum uzmanı olarak çalıştı. 1999 yılında Kanada’ya yerleşti. Paketleme şirketlerinde üretim hattı yöneticisi olarak çalıştı. Halen bir lojistik firmasında faturalama uzmanı olarak çalışmaktadır. Evli ve iki çocuk sahibidir. Turkish Society of Canada’nın her etkinliğinde gönüllü olarak çalışan fedakar üyelerindendir.