our coastal waters at the opportune time
the captain will ask them where’s the
closest danger they will study the chart
they’ll look at the radar then the point
of the window and identify the nearest
point of land the captain will shake his
head knowingly and say no the nearest
danger is beneath us it’s 45 meters deep
and it’s getting shallower eyes widening
with understanding the student will now
notice the echo sounder and the little
red numbers of the chart that represent
depth they never noticed before and
they’ll plot a course to deeper water it
is completely possible and in fact
probable without the help of someone
more experienced that we can grow up
unaware the information resources and
pathways available to us we adults are
the village that raise a child we have
the imperative we have the knowledgeably
imperative that we must work to earn
money to survive
we know that the journey is not K to 12
it’s not K to degree it’s K to career
and as teachers you are special agents
with a critical role in helping students
on that continuum towards becoming
adaptable young adults in Canada most
provinces have a mandatory course and
career development that students must
take in high school here in Alberta it’s
called career and life management or
calm these are courses that help
students explore post-secondary and
career options hopefully help build some
financial literacy but above all build
vocational identity which is one of the
best strategies that exists to get a
student engaged in school
unfortunately I’m told this is tied for
the most failed course in Alberta I’m
tired I’m told that it’s the most failed
person Ontario as well clearly there is
a problem now I worked with 30,000
students and teachers and career classes
across Canada and in my opinion the
problem is not the complacent teenager
yeah they kind of don’t care from their
fifteen-year-old vantage point Brown is
still a long way off and if their
parents are taking care of everything
you add a cell phone with data plan and
I think Maslow could have redesigned as
it will just naturally push this work
off thank you very much no I think the
problem lies in what I call the churn of
the career educator changing the teacher
every semester throwing in Johnny new
guy the phys ed teacher to fill it as
full-time equivalency removes the
subject matter expert resulting in a
loss of corporate knowledge and a
complete lack of awareness of the
research around why would you career
education here in Canada to begin with
so it’s critical to build value with the
educator and with the student and why we
do those courses and in particular the
activities that we do in those courses
how did they help us prepare for life
after school so to do that I’d like to
tell a story when I was in grade two I
was at my uncle’s wedding and I met a
guy who was a paleontologist and I must
have said I love dinosaurs you know what
he did he actually mailed me a real
dinosaur bone got in the mail with
paperwork and iowa’s hooked I wanted to
be a paleontologist right through to
grade 12 now I grew up in Peterborough
back when we had grade 13 and I played a
lot of sports and in the many twists
that life will throw you McGill
University recruited me to be
quarterback for their football team but
they didn’t have paleontology and as you
all know of course University of Alberta
had paleontology but in that year they
announced that they cut their football
team due to budget cuts and when I
received that piece of information I
changed my entire life direction after a
moment after ten years of laser focus
because I was scared that they would cut
paleontology next my parents had told me
in grade 9 that I had to pay my own way
through university so I knew I needed
scholarships did you know that there are
14 million dollars in unclaimed
scholarships in Canada every year I
mentioned this in a high school here in
Edmonton in the fall and the teacher got
excited and said yeah I’m left-handed
and there’s a scholarship for
left-handed people and they awarded it
to a right-handed person because no one
so I filled up the paperwork in the
applications that I found myself
accepted to a number of institutions
across Canada for various life sciences
none of the paleontology my mom found
out about a bus going from Peterborough
to Kingston to check out a university
called RMC I said what’s RMC she said
Royal Military College I said was I a
bad child
he said no if you can get into RMC it’s
$100,000 scholarship the government will
pay you a paycheck every two weeks to go
to university I thought okay mom we’ll
go check it out
what I discovered was an institution
based on teamwork and the fact we had
the only double major of its kind in
Canada a double major in oceanography
and space science and I thought that was
cool so I wanted to apply now here’s the
deal
that happened 26 years ago when I was in
grade 10 I knew exactly what I wanted to
do with my life with laser focus get
everything I’ve done in my life today
Greg the day I graduated high school I
didn’t even know existed and most of it
didn’t I just retired last spring after
25 years in the Royal Canadian Navy I
went through Royal Roads Military
College for four years and while I was
there I met the Queen I worked in the
Arctic I got to work in the Commonwealth
Games I’ve done two deployments to the
Persian Gulf I’ve hunted submarines when
I was in the bridge of his ship I
legally had charge of that ship so it
was 2:00 in the morning we were sailing
across the Marianas Trench and there it
was I could see a challenger deep the
deepest place on earth 11 kilometers
deep I could see it on the chart I had
to do it port 30 I turn the ship south I
sailed over to challenger deep I ran it
to the bridge wing with a my camera and
a nickel I took a selfie which in 1989
took me six months ago I dropped a
nickel and I sailed the ship back of
course thinking nobody knows what I just
did but the captain knows all even in
his sleep he wakes up the next morning
calls me to his cabin and he says lean
why you have to be accountable so I said
sir I wanted to throw a nickel and the
challenger deep he goes why and I go sir
there’s a Canadian nickel at the bottom
of the earth and I got to put it there
and I think that’s cool if he goes just
go and the whole point of that is you
have no idea what you’re going to be
able to do in this life I can’t I
couldn’t have dreamed of the things that
I’ve done
growing up in Peterborough Ontario
dreaming of being a paleontologist even
in grade 12 everything has turned out
different
I transferred from the reg force to the
reserves and started working part-time
in the military the largest company in
the planet GD hired me to manage a
locomotive facility in Port Coquitlam
which I did for five years in the
interview of the guy said you have to
have a master’s degree in mechanical or
electrical engineering I didn’t have a
double major in science right or he says
we will accept your your experience as
an officer or a senior in CMU military
because we think you’ll figure it out
that’s the time to be really confident
when they saw me as adaptable and it
worked now after five years my wife and
I wanted to move back to Victoria and so
I got hired by a very small company in
an industry that was so new it didn’t
have a name industry and not have a name
it’s now known as digital out of home
it’s the fastest growing communication
medium in the world
I designed the advertising on the
Victorian National Airport and I built a
digital signage network abroad Western
Canada my industry became marketing
advertising and communications a
completely different shift
University of Victoria come Olson
College became clients of mine I had
lunch with the director of marketing
recruiting at Combe Olson and I said you
guys have 160 programs that’s a lot of
programs I don’t know how many of those
I could name off the top of my head but
how does building the grade 10 kid
figure out what you offer today and he
told me that the direct methods of
engagement are putting posters and
brochures in the school’s books in the
career centers and the guidance offices
driving around and presenting in schools
and having booths at career fairs aha
nothing’s changed okay
that’s the way we did it in the 80s it’s
probably what we did back in the 50s I
don’t know how that before that works so
I found it chatter high a web
application that gamify is exploring
post-secondary and career opportunities
and financial literacy resources and so
on and I tried to learn how to become
the CEO I had to learn how
do this now I think back to my high
school experience all the prerequisites
that I picked has anything that I’ve
done in my life looked like digging up
dinosaurs no right maybe I took all the
wrong courses I think back to mr. Keene
my grade 11 chemistry teacher was an
awesome teacher and he taught a
stoichiometry I mean it hurts just to
spell the word
okay and now I want you to realize I was
an engaged student I wanted to be a
paleontologist so I picked chem 11 plus
I was I knew that I needed scholarships
so I had to put my hand up and have some
questions and figure it out and I
figured out joy qiyamah tree and I think
I aced it and I never did it again for
26 years
so are we wasting our time and of course
the answer to that is no we are not
wasting our time the day that I learned
is joy qiyamah tree I became a little
bit more adaptable that day every time
that we learned something and we do the
work to figure something out we’d be
getting better if we get a better
problem solving and figuring things out
we get more adaptable and we need this
Canadians today and Americans today
change their major on average three
times so surprised you picked all the
wrong courses and the world is changing
rapidly if a guy had walked into my
grade 10 class in 1987 pulled at a
crystal ball I could have gone something
weird
what’s the world gonna look like in 10
years guys whoa what is that in 10 years
all known knowledge in the history of
the world is going to be on our phone in
our pockets right we would have started
that guy 1980 something like what was
back then it was rotary dial remember
which was one number like think about a
ten digit number today we run cuz it’d
be faster hey Terry what’s up yeah what
are you doing Friday night yep my mom
get off the phone I’m on the phone with
Terry
sorry man click like there was no
intelligent life on a telephone but this
happened the whole world changed and
I’ve been working in this industry ever
since there was no course I could have
taken in high school to tell me what to
do the same thing is true for today’s
team only we’re at 10 XP
right Holland says that we internal
combustion engine free by 2025 we’re
printing body parts with 3d printers
Pittsburgh is testing their driverless
who briefly think about that the social
economy with driverless cars very nice
today will they need to own a car I’m
not sure
in the fall they trimmed up Minister of
Transportation in India offered Elon
Musk a 700 kilometer stretch of land
along their busy highway to build his
Hyperloop which is a plastic bubble the
size of a bus that carries us at 1,100
kilometers an hour through – that’s I
figured it out that’s Edmonton to
Calgary in 16 minutes I have like what
okay
Elon also says that we will be living
and working on Mars in 10 years now how
do you just thought yeah that’s gonna
open up the job opportunities for me
you can’t you can’t picture this that
would be like in the mid-eighties saying
will there be jobs in that World Wide
Web thingy right now the coin started
dropped for me two years ago I went to
WIDA in Vancouver and Selena Gomez was
the emcee
so basically 20,000 screaming teenagers
chasing this poor girl around the Rogers
Arena really loud and my favorite moment
was this young lady was given 45 seconds
to stand in the middle of the whole
arena and tell her story and she got up
there we’re all talking and talking and
she goes hi my name is Jennifer and my
father was a pilot and for some reason
we all stopped talking and we listened
and she said and now I’m doing this
training where they freeze my arms like
no rock climbing what I am one of four
people that’s been selected to colonize
Mars 20,000 stomachs just john-boy she’s
going to be a Martian voice in the back
of my head no she’s going to be an
and all of a sudden I had this moment of
lucidity where I realized what is my
kitchen gonna look like in ten years one
of the culinary arts going to be what’s
the Postal Service what is the
communication world it doesn’t exist
today we are not taking courses right
now that will be teaching us what we’re
going to be doing we are simply learning
how to learn so we can be adaptable for
this crazy changing world
did it matter that I wanted to be a
paleontologist that I never did it no
what mattered was I wanted to be
something
now in these courses we have a course
cited we do an assignment I called
Occupational path assessment or
backwards mapping and this is where you
know Billy wants to be a veterinarian
great go pick three institutions and do
side-by-sides and figure out your
prerequisites right I suggest you need
to double down on this one make sure
they learn this skill of how to assess
the path this is a critical thing they
need to take with them for the rest of
their life make it clear Billy you want
to be an astronaut yeah okay well that’s
tough because NASA doesn’t make NASCAR
it doesn’t hire astronauts they make
them so let’s pretend this is the day
you’re in space work back to grade 10
here at Wagner okay what does that path
look like well if you’re an astronaut
you know you’ve been there for a couple
of years you’ve got selected before that
you’re a fighter jet test pilot before
that you were a fighter jet pilot you
join the military you’ve got a degree
you can speak Russian and you could
scuba-dive okay I think I might be grade
seven here okay is that what you want to
do Billy yes all right come see me at
lunch we need to do some extra math too
my friend okay now why do we do this one
of two things will happen
one he will either go fresh man I’m not
doing that’s crazy I don’t even like
math we go great let’s use this semester
to score some other paths that might be
interesting for you because we want you
to get engaged in school because the
flipside of this is true and this is why
we decree education in Canada if you’ve
done the work to figure out that path
then you’re going yeah man I love math I
would be an engineer I go to military
I’d be a fighter jet pilot that would
rock you know you’re doing your bonding
with this idea of the path you can see
yourself on the path all the way to the
goal of the career and that is the
definition of hope and hope is the
biggest predictor of your success let me
say this again believing in a goal that
you can reach and believing in a path
that you can follow is the definition of
hope now there is a third part agency
which is the willpower to start on that
path but hope better than great
personality and intelligence is the
biggest predictor of what I call your
success objective academic achievement
it is very important for them to learn
this now we all know this intuitively so
I’d like to say the story to make this
clear how many of you can cook I mean
you do the coming at home like it’s yeah
it’s okay sure there’s hands I’m a lucky
guy my wife does all the cooking at home
she’s an amazing cook and we have twenty
ten year old daughters that are very
athletic so basically she’s like feeding
them all this is kind of a headlock
feeding them away it’s really tiring you
know and she might say to me Lee you’re
on for Saturday okay stop crying Midori
the recipes on the counter but don’t
mess up it’s always there would it make
any sense for me to go to the grocery
store grab a shopping cart walk through
the aisles going hey that looks good
throw that in the basket and what’s he
doing I’m gonna do that too throw that
in the basket come back to the cashier
pays for everything go home one hour
before dinner on Saturday and then look
at the recipe for the first time I
totally screwed up I got all the wrong
ingredients I was supposed to start
marinating meat yesterday she’s gonna
kill me
all right kids hop in the car we’re
going to Starbucks for dinner you really
got to sell that one right
Starbucks it’s kind of weird too right
okay what would you have done
Michael what would you have done oh my
god yeah you would have looked at the
recipe first okay you would have looked
at the recipe first right the occupation
what path assessment is looking at the
recipe before
go through all these years of school I
don’t care how smart you are if you
don’t look at the recipe you’re probably
going to get the wrong ingredients
you’re probably gonna do it wrong right
this happens all the time
people go through all these years of
education and graduate with their degree
and they end up working at Starbucks
it’s on the application form what level
of post-secondary did you reach now if
you wanted to be a barista or perhaps a
franchise owner or anything like that
god bless you that’s a great way to go
but if you wanted to be doing something
else this is the work you need to be
doing while you’re going through all
these years of school so teachers
counselors administrators parents we
must get students to actively explore
the information that’s all around them
that they wouldn’t otherwise see we must
help them build some vocational identity
and if they’ve if they find an interest
then we must double down on helping them
learn how to assess that path like
hunting a submarine we must constantly
look over the horizon to the goal of the
career and paying back to today going
am I on any kind of path that makes
sense here and if you believe that you
can follow that path you have hope and
hope is the biggest predictor of your
success you get engaged and this helps
you to learn how to learn you will
become adaptable for a changing world I
believe that the career education
courses that we do are the most
important courses we do in high school
because they’re the one that puts all
the other courses in perspective it’s
the course where you build hope and you
are the engines of hope thank you [Applause]