York University continues its commitment to providing staff, faculty and students with career programming and resources to help build meaningful careers and create positive change.
With November marking National Career Month – an annual celebration that encourages staff, faculty and students to set career goals and acquire new skills to achieve personal success – York’s Organizational Learning & People Excellence team encourages community members to access a diverse range of new career programming and supports designed to provide the knowledge, experience and transferable skills needed to adapt and thrive in an evolving work landscape.
For employees, new career navigation and talent mobility programming aims to recognize and nurture talent from within, while supporting employees who are looking to advance their careers at York. Among new offerings are new self-directed career resources, a new talent mobility program and new career-focused, customized services to support employees in navigating their careers at York with confidence. “We want to help our employees do their best work, and York’s best work too,” says Jennifer Sipos, director of Organizational Learning & People Excellence.
“To ensure our collective readiness for 21st-century change and the future of work, our approach emphasizes the co-creation of careers that are employee driven and manager supported,” said Mary Catherine Masciangelo, assistant vice-president human resources and chief human resources officer.
For faculty members’ career development, the Office of Faculty Affairs hosts faculty meetups to build capacity and community amongst each other. Last year, meetups were used to enhance networking and to share knowledge among teaching-stream colleagues, women scholars and associate professors interested in promotion to full professor.
This year, meetups will continue to gather various faculty contingents to build community. They will also include specific skill-building and informational programming such as how to communicate about research with audiences outside of academia.
“There is no one right way to be a scholar,” says Laina Bay-Cheng, associate vice-president of Faculty Affairs. “In fact, it’s the diversity among us – in research questions, methods and aims, but also in lived experiences, circumstances and commitments – that makes us a thriving, expansive intellectual community. We want colleagues to feel supported in pursuing whatever path they’re on and connect them with each other, so they can find camaraderie and models along the way.”
York’s Student Success cluster under the Division of Students, the Career Centre, also continues to support students and recent alumni with ongoing career counselling, development workshops and webinars, as well as online tools and resources.
To encourage continuous learning in and out of the classroom, the Career Centre is reviewing and optimizing career, experiential education and work-integrated learning platforms to ensure they can offer the broadest reach of digital supports and access to students.
“The Career Centre partners with the York community to champion the development of career confidence for our students and alumni,” said Bob Eichvald, director of the Career Centre. “We actively engage with employers and the broader community to create opportunities and empower students to build agency over their career and an understanding of the pathways and broad expanse of opportunities that their York education provides.”
“York attracts excellent students from diverse backgrounds, who then bring the skills and knowledge they develop through their studies at York, into their careers,” said Yvette Munro, assistant vice-provost, Student Success, Division of Students. “Our graduates make a difference in every field of work and across the globe.”
These collective programming initiatives are building upon the University’s ongoing efforts to expand resources across its campuses to support staff, faculty and students.
Students looking to learn more can visit the Career Centre.
Employees who would like to register for self-directed career navigation guides or curated career-focused LinkedIn Learning paths can visit Career Navigation & Talent Mobility. To register for career courses, employees can visit YU Learn.
To learn more about faculty meetups, visit Faculty Affairs.