Monday February 13, 2023 | COLWOOD, BC [Updated 12:30 pm]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
It takes a lot of work for a school to put on a career pathways event with high-profile speakers.
Royal Bay Secondary School (RBSS) in Colwood is the only high school in the region with a Career Day of that scope — where speakers from a range of professionals and community leadership roles are invited in as speakers. That was done in 2018 and also 2022.
In 2018 and 2022, those years also happened to be in the fourth year of the 4-year election campaign cycle for school trustees and municipal council. The 2022 event did include several speakers from within SD62.
The next career pathway day at that scale of organization is likely three years away, say RBSS career centre staff.
Big effort:
Coordination of events like Career Day 2022 is done over and above the regular obligations of career staff and teachers.
The community appreciates it! People have been asking, remembering the success of last year’s special day [Career Day 2022] which included massive scheduling (and a website for coordinating that), courteous hosting, media arrangements, and refreshments.
Career focus in 2023:
This year the career organizers are focussing on life skills in Grade 10 and support for applying into post-secondary.
A few weeks ago, an online session was held for parents of students who are aiming to do their post-secondary applications (organized through the Ministry and presented to parents of three school districts: SD61, SD62, SD63).
Earlier in this academic year, it was discussed in detail at the committee level how career development awareness and skills are applied throughout the K-12 learning journey as a reflection of how the world is rapidly changing due to technology, global economic forces, climate change and dramatic shifts in social norms.
Three high schools:
High school students in School District 62 are in Grades 9 to 12. Presently there are three high schools in SD62: Royal Bay Secondary (Colwood), Belmont Secondary (Langford), and Edward Milne Community School (Sooke).
Royal Bay and Belmont are operating at (or beyond) full capacity, in terms of the number of students for the available facility space. Among other impacts, by next year portable classrooms will be returning to what is presently a parking lot at Royal Bay.
A second high school located in Langford has been under discussion for a few years. It would be located in the McCallum Road area (near the Millstream commercial area). Development of new schools is dependent on capital funding from the Ministry of Education and Child Care.
===== RELATED:
Parents as career coaches in SD61, SD62, SD63 (Jan 7, 2023)
SD62: Career development throughout K-12 (Dec 6, 2022)
Royal Bay Career Day 2022 (March 16, 2022)
===== ABOUT ISLAND SOCIAL TRENDS:
Island Social Trends is a professional news portal at islandsocialtrends.ca . Fully online since mid-2020, Island Social Trends emerged from the extensive groundwork of previous print publications in the west shore: MapleLine Magazine (2008-2010), Sooke Voice News (2011-2013), and West Shore Voice News (2014-2020).
Since 2008, journalist and editor Mary P Brooke has taken a socioeconomic lens to news analysis about the west shore and south Vancouver Island region, including BC provincial news, and national news impacts.
Ms Brooke has been covering news of School District 62 (SD62) at the board and committee level — attending nearly all of their meetings since 2014. She was a school trustee candidate (SD62 – Belmont Zone / Langford, Colwood, Metchosin and Highlands) in the October 2022 election.