Career Path: Three-Day Seminar in Aghveran

• 10.05.2015, 14:13
•  Other

The questions, how to find a job, to whom and how to approach, are in every young individual’s mind, who just starts his/her career path. The students and alumni of Yerevan N2 Regional vocational college are in the very stage of their lives when those questions become common for them.

From August 28 to 30 in the town of Aghveran (Armenia), a three day seminar for the college students was organized by Armenian Orphans Fund (Canada, representative- Secretary/Treasurer Robert St-Germain),  in cooperation with Terres d’ailleurs (France, representative- President Sarkis Arbajian). The vocational seminar, "Career Path", aimed at presetting the young ones, who were to start their professional paths, the right methods of finding a job, the skills necessary for writing CVs and motivation letters as well as the rules of communication with a potential employer.

Secretary/Treasurer Robert St-Germain of the Armenian Orphans Fund (Canada), the head of the Career's center of the same college Liana Amiraghyan, the lecturers of Geography Shushan Navasardyan, as well as economist-analyst of "Armedia" Information Analytical Agency Lilia Amirkhanyan gave lectures on the above mentioned topics.

By the way it is to be noted that by a happy coincidence before the college students would arrive, the children of "SOS Children’s Village" were in Aghveran. Mr. St-Germain presented an evening lecture for them, while the discussion, exchange of ideas, debates, answer and question session made the atmosphere warm. Filled with positive emotions, the organizers welcome the main participants of the seminar.

Mr. St-Germain, who was the main organizer of the seminar, presented socio-economic and geographical peculiarities of Canada during the first day of seminar. The case of Canada, as an example of new culture different from the one in our country, was of the interest to the participants it terms of raising their awareness on the issue.

On the same day during the second part of his lecture, Mr. St-Germain presented his own career path. Naturally enough the present pensioner’s career path in several different spheres and 33 years of work experience in the Canadian government, have become a vivid practical demonstration of the presented theoretical material. The career path of Mr. St-Germain was full of a number of important nuances, that are discussed in the textbooks, and was bright and shiny like Mr. St-Germain himself. The main aspects of Mr. St-Germain’s lecture, which was simply called "Career Path", contained the following main ideas:

• One should have a goal.
• One should work out the path that leads to that goal.
• One should not deviate from the path which sometimes can be winding. Even when one is forced to deviate, he/she should not forget about his/her goal and should come back to it.
• To reach the goal everything should be done, every type of work, even the one that has nothing to do with your goal. The most important thing is to make it serve your goal.
• One should always knock every door, act as an initiator. 

During the second day of seminar the lecturers' of the college, Liana and Shushan gave lectures on how to write CVs and motivation letters. After the lectures, the participants wrote their own CVs which are to be kept as bases for later revisions. In addition, the lecturers organized special negotiation game, during which the participants took the roles of employers and employees.

On the third day of the seminar Lilia Amirkhanyan gave a lecture on "Language of Gestures" and "How to Communicate over the Phone" topics.

The first lecture was on the peculiarities of the telephone conversation with an employer, while the second one was on the language of gestures. After the lectures the participants were divided into two opposite groups. The task of the first group members was to present persuasive arguments on the issue decided in advance to make another group members take a decision that is in the interests of the first group members. The game aimed at revealing the debate skills of the participants and discussing their mistakes.

The third day of the seminar was in more non-formal atmosphere. The seminar organizers gave the college students evaluation papers to fill in. Afterwards the certificates were presented to them. At the seminar's end the participants had an opportunity to eat Armenian traditional barbecue, the initiator of which was president of NGO "Aregak" Varduhi Khachikyan.

The seminar continued in the college in Yerevan, after which another seminar was organized for the students of Vanadzor branch of State Engineering University of Armenia.

Finally it is worth mentioning that the relations of the seminar organizers and participants became friendlier after they exchanged contact details. What  the impact of the seminar in the professional path of the participants will be; will become known in the future.

All in all, the first step has already been taken towards achieving the Armenian Orphans Fund's motto of "building a better future"!.