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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.