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Professionals are increasingly turning to Canada’s colleges as viable options
Montreal, Quebec — Just days after graduating with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1993, Debbie Trenholm snagged a job at Corel, then the biggest software company in Canada. Internationally acclaimed for its innovative computer graphics programs such as CorelDRAW, the Ottawa company was a high-tech heavyweight at the time, boasting millions in annual sales and clients spread across the globe.
Smart and driven, Trenholm quickly rose up the ladder to become Corel’s director of sales and marketing in the U.K., a job which saw her crisscross Europe. Her duties included entertaining clients at many four-star restaurants, during which she often found herself intrigued by the expansive—not to mention expensive—wine lists.
“I would order the house wine, because it was the safe bet,” she recalls. “But I always wondered about the rest of the list; what was it like?”
Fascinated by the offerings, Trenholm returned home and signed up for an after-hours sommelier program at a local college. Pretty soon, she realized that she’d found a new passion. A few years later, as Corel began to crumble under the dot-com collapse, she decided to make a critical career change.
“It was time for me to invest in myself,’” she says now, her thoughts turning to the idea of “What else was out there?”
According to the Canadian Council on Learning’s (CCL) 2008–2009 report on the state of Post-secondary Education in Canada, Trenholm is by no means alone. Nearly two-thirds of Canadians between the ages of 25 and 34 who enter college, university or apprenticeships do so either to find a job or change jobs. Further, more than 40% of older workers (those between the ages of 45 and 54) pursue PSE for the same reason.
This switching of gears in mid-career is increasingly common. Over the course of a lifetime, Canadians will enter and exit the labour force an average of 17 times, either changing jobs or taking time off to raise children, travel or pursue other educational goals. Increasingly, white-collar workers (like Trenholm) are turning to community colleges to acquire training in a trade or service profession.
“We’ve seen a real rise in the number of people with university degrees coming back to enrol in a practical program,” says Terry Anne Boyles, vice-president of member services and public policy for the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC). “You can get a certificate or a diploma quickly and go out and work.”
The same trend can be seen at the Pearson Adult and Career Centre (PACC) in LaSalle, just south of Montreal. Enrolment at the school, which offers programs in professional cooking, retail butchering and pastry making, among others, has been at full capacity for the past five years. Richard Oliver, the school’s director, attributes the school’s popularity to a growing sense that vocational occupations—or ‘advanced skills training’—are a valid path to success.
“We have waiting lists in all our food programs—and it’s not tied to high pay.” Rather, he says, it’s a reflection of the culture, which has made professional cooking “a cool thing to do.” Between 10% and 15% of Pearson’s 900 students are professionals in mid-career who are desperate for a life change. “Some have had a burnout; others feel that life is moving past them,” Oliver says.
PACC’s programs are geared towards those looking for a quick turnaround. Most of the courses take one to two years to complete, and nearly 90% of graduates find work in their new field within a month of graduation.
Whether you're doing it out of choice or out of necessity, a career change can be a liberating experience says ACCC’s Terry Anne Boyles. “Some people are thrilled to be laid off,” she notes. “It forces them to take a break—and they’re often reinvigorated.” Changing careers, however, can also be a stressful proposition, particularly when you already have a good job. That’s why Trenholm enlisted the services of career coach Alan Kearns.
An ex-head hunter for the high-tech industry, Kearns started Careerjoy.com six years ago, a company that offers workshops and counselling in three Canadian cities. Most of his clients are already employed, but are dissatisfied with their work. “What I typically see is people who don’t really know what they want to do,” says Kearns. “My goal is to guide them in exploring a wide range of options.”
Trenholm turned to Kearns in 2002, after she returned to school yet again to earn an Executive MBA from Queen’s University. “He helped me see that a career was out there for me to develop,” she says. Together, they focused on what Trenholm felt she excelled at: marketing home-grown companies.
In 2003, she combined her passion for wine and her natural zest for marketing and launched The Savvy Grapes, a company that aims to make Canadian wines accessible to consumers. The start-up (which is now known as Savvy Company) matches up a team of sommeliers and chefs with customers looking to host dinner parties or client gatherings. It also hosts wine-tastings for budding oenophiles and offers a wine-of-the-month club that provides subscribers with tips on “hidden gems you can’t find elsewhere.” The Ottawa Business Journal recently included Trenholm on its Top Forty Under 40 list, while the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce has honoured her with a Professional Services Award two years running.
Career changes in mid-life like Trenholm’s are no longer isolated cases. Boyles says up to 25% of the students at some community colleges already have university degrees and are returning to school for a practical program.
“The range and scope of college courses is greater than ever before,” she says. Which means that more “people can turn what had been a hobby into a career.”
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