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CPF Magazine Winter 2021 Issue

A national network of volunteers, parents and stakeholders who value French as an integral part of Canada. CPF Magazine is dedicated to the promotion and creation of French-second-language learning opportunities for young Canadians.

A national network of volunteers, parents and stakeholders who value French as an integral part of Canada. CPF Magazine is dedicated to the promotion and creation of French-second-language learning opportunities for young Canadians.

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uncertain future and an ever-changing<br />

job market.<br />

That is what SparkPath aims to<br />

change. SparkPath is an organization that<br />

helps better prepare the young for the<br />

world or for work by exploring challenges.<br />

Its founder JP Michel, who, since 2009<br />

has helped high school and university<br />

students develop their potential, helps<br />

them set ambitious career paths that look<br />

beyond job titles.<br />

JP proposes what he calls the<br />

“Challenge mindset”, which switches the<br />

traditional approach to choosing a career<br />

by focusing on real-world challenges,<br />

not on job titles. Because in fact, the<br />

problems that are hard to solve stick<br />

around but the companies and types or<br />

people that work on them change.<br />

To support the mindset, SparkPath<br />

has developed the “Challenge Cards,”<br />

available in English and French, which are<br />

an innovative tool that helps students<br />

find the challenges and problems that they<br />

want to work on. The cards are used by<br />

high schools and colleges across the world.<br />

The cards picture present-day<br />

challenges like “engineering better<br />

medicine” or “redesigning the healthcare<br />

system.” While you might be thinking that<br />

for those two examples the choices are<br />

clearly a career in medicine or biology,<br />

the cards help students realize that many<br />

other jobs are needed to solve those<br />

challenges. For example, the project<br />

managers that keep tabs on people, the<br />

people in human resources who hired<br />

them, the people who look after the<br />

equipment, etc., all work on the same<br />

problem. Because yes, indeed, you can<br />

be an accountant helping redesign the<br />

transportation system.<br />

The cards help reformulate the<br />

question from “what do you want to be<br />

when you grow up” to “what are the<br />

problems that you want to solve,” which<br />

according to its founder is a great way to<br />

inspire youth as it allows them to try to<br />

be the best for their job, even if it doesn’t<br />

exist yet.<br />

This new mindset has proven to be<br />

helpful to students. In fact, in a case study<br />

with grade 10 students from Ashbury<br />

College in Ottawa, 89% of students<br />

mentioned that the Challenge Cards<br />

opened the doors to new possibilities.<br />

On top of that, 96% of students enjoyed<br />

doing the card sort. n<br />

JP Michel is on a mission to change the way we prepare<br />

people for their careers. His work in human resources consulting<br />

gave him the opportunity to work with and learn from<br />

some of the world’s largest organizations. JP took these<br />

lessons learned to start his company, SparkPath, where he<br />

does career and leadership development with youth and<br />

leaders in both official languages. JP has a master’s degree<br />

in industrial-organizational psychology and is the recipient<br />

of the 2017 Outstanding Career Professional award from the<br />

Career Professionals of Canada. JP was a keynote speaker at<br />

the <strong>CPF</strong> Network Virtual Conference 2020.<br />

To find out more about the Challenge mindset, you can visit<br />

www.mysparkpath.com.<br />

FOR MORE INFO<br />

info@campt.ca<br />

1.888.882.1889<br />

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2020-12-14 12:59 PM<br />

<strong>CPF</strong> MAGAZINE WINTER <strong>2021</strong> 17

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