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Chronicle 17-18 Issue 06

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Community chronicle.durhamcollege.ca February 13 - 19, 20<strong>18</strong> The <strong>Chronicle</strong> 9<br />

'People hire people - not degrees'<br />

Shanelle Somers<br />

The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />

After graduating some students<br />

may assume the doors of employment<br />

will swing wide open. But,<br />

actually there is still more work to<br />

be done. The fact is employers are<br />

interested in you - not necessarily<br />

your education.<br />

This is the reality Bachelor of<br />

Arts (BA) university undergraduates<br />

and graduates are facing today<br />

and what was communicated<br />

to students attending the ‘What<br />

to do with your BA’ event at the<br />

University of Ontario Institute of<br />

Technology (UOIT).<br />

“I definitely think that university<br />

has turned from being exceptional<br />

to being an expectation. Students<br />

have just determined that a university<br />

education is just a part of<br />

the path to success,” says Hamdi<br />

Jimale, Social Sciences and Humanities<br />

Society (SSHS) student<br />

president.<br />

In order to confront this and<br />

help guide students to employment,<br />

UOIT’s SSHS invited four<br />

panelists to speak to a group of<br />

more than 100 students at the event<br />

held Jan. 31 at UOIT’s downtown<br />

campus.<br />

Each panelist spoke on the importance<br />

of making the most of a<br />

BA through their personal experiences.<br />

The group of panelists included<br />

Durham Regional Constable<br />

Jarrod Singh (otherwise known as<br />

the dancing cop), Toronto youth<br />

cabinet advisory board member<br />

Arrathiyah Thirukkumaran; Oshawa<br />

criminal and family lawyer<br />

Nick Frid; talent interviewer and<br />

host for Faze Magazine Deanna<br />

Foster; and panel moderator, Dr.<br />

Vivian Stamatopoulos, assistant<br />

teaching professor of UOIT.<br />

Panelists offered 20 tips to students<br />

who are looking to make the<br />

most out of their education and<br />

future careers.<br />

Among the tips given were to<br />

build your character, seek support,<br />

volunteer and to make yourself an<br />

asset in the workplace.<br />

Const. Singh says what students<br />

can do right now in the midst<br />

of their education is build their<br />

character. He says going out and<br />

Photograph by Shanelle Somers<br />

Social sciences and humanities students engaged as they got top tips from the panelists.<br />

getting a job and getting involved<br />

with extracurricular activities is<br />

important even if it does feel overwhelming.<br />

Thirukkumaran says it’s important<br />

to take care of yourself during<br />

your education experience and<br />

extracurricular activities. She says<br />

when you feel something is wrong,<br />

you should seek support.<br />

“Not having a good support system<br />

will hinder you,” says Thirukkumaran.<br />

Frid says volunteering helped<br />

him a lot in his career path.<br />

“Whether you’re an introvert<br />

or an extrovert, entrepreneurial<br />

skills are essential. What I found<br />

out about volunteering is it’s a great<br />

place to fail - failure is so important,<br />

you learn a lot from it,” says<br />

Frid.<br />

Foster ended the evening with<br />

advice students don’t always hear.<br />

She says employers are looking to<br />

hire you, not necessarily your education.<br />

“People hire people - not degrees.<br />

If one person is making effort to<br />

explore the world around them and<br />

is constantly looking for ways to<br />

further their professional developmental<br />

journey, the employer will<br />

most likely be interested in them,”<br />

says Foster.<br />

Students left the event feeling<br />

equipped and felt a little more guided<br />

in how to approach their studies<br />

and the job market.<br />

Forensic student Dylan Walters<br />

says, “as a student who has absolutely<br />

no clue how to get myself out<br />

there the panelists gave us such a<br />

great start on what I actually do.<br />

It’s so important to get your name<br />

and position out there and as much<br />

as our parents tell us to just, you<br />

know go out there, and go up to<br />

an employer and ask for a job, obviously<br />

for me it’s not that simple<br />

but with the advice I was given tonight<br />

it almost feels like it could be<br />

that simple.”<br />

Toyota moves from Toronto to Bowmanville<br />

Austin Andru<br />

The <strong>Chronicle</strong><br />

Toyota is investing $40 million<br />

to relocate its distribution centre<br />

from Toronto to Bowmanville.<br />

More than 100 employees from<br />

the company’s Toronto centre will<br />

be transferred to the new location<br />

at the corner of Lambs Road and<br />

Baseline Road and up to 150 new<br />

jobs in the short and long term will<br />

be created for members of the community.<br />

Toyota says construction<br />

will begin later this year with a plan<br />

to begin operations by 2019.<br />

“I certainly think it’s great because<br />

it means jobs and economic<br />

activity in the area,” says Erin<br />

O’Toole, Member of Parliament<br />

for Durham, in an interview.<br />

“We’re really trying to showcase<br />

Clarington and Durham in its<br />

affordability.”<br />

O’Toole says Toyota centre employees<br />

will be able to get into the<br />

housing market, which might not<br />

be possible if they were in Toronto.<br />

In addition, O’Toole says it is<br />

financially beneficial for the company<br />

to move outward and it will<br />

put Clarington on the map for<br />

other businesses.<br />

“They can get good industrial<br />

land at a good price,” O’Toole<br />

says. By making the investment in<br />

Clarington, it shows that companies<br />

are looking east of the GTA, and<br />

may encourage other companies to<br />

invest in Clarington.<br />

“Toyota is a name of global<br />

prominence,” says O’Toole.<br />

Briana Scullion of corporate<br />

communications for Toyota says<br />

there were a number of factors that<br />

led to choosing Clarington, including<br />

the cost of land, accessibility to<br />

Highway 401 and a town incentive<br />

for companies that buy land in the<br />

municipality.<br />

Scullion says Toyota “really<br />

liked the effort that the staff from<br />

the Municipality of Clarington,<br />

the Region of Durham and the<br />

Clarington Board of Trade put<br />

forward to attract the company to<br />

this location.”<br />

“We were number three on the<br />

list,” says Clarington mayor Adrian<br />

Foster.<br />

“Our staff and board of trade<br />

had to try really hard to get Toyota<br />

here.”<br />

Scullion says Clarington meets<br />

Toyota’s needs perfectly as the location<br />

is very close to the highway<br />

and transportation infrastructure.<br />

“With neighbours like UOIT<br />

and Durham College, we know<br />

that we’d be very well positioned to<br />

take advantage of the area’s highly<br />

skilled workforce,” says Scullion.<br />

Basia Radomski, tourism<br />

manager for the Municipality of<br />

Clarington, says Toyota’s move to<br />

town will spur growth in the community.<br />

“This investment elevates<br />

Clarington’s profile within the<br />

economic development world and<br />

Land where the Toyota distribution centre will be built.<br />

should attract further growth in<br />

the employment sector,” says Radomski.<br />

Toyota says most jobs will be<br />

filled by employees of the former<br />

distribution centre in phase one<br />

and won’t bring many new jobs immediately.<br />

However, they indicate<br />

there will be a large number of construction<br />

jobs which in turn, will be<br />

Photograph by Austin Andru<br />

a boost to local businesses. Toyota says<br />

the second phase will bring in more<br />

local jobs with a planned expansion<br />

of the facility. The timing of the expansion<br />

is undetermined.

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