Where the jobs are

The key is flexibility

Most women who go back to school do so to get a better job. While improving your job prospects is certainly a valid reason for returning to school, it's a mistake to think that you can simply find out what fields have labor shortages and train for one of those jobs.

One career advisor pointed out that although you may read in the paper that the airline industry is cutting back, there may be a shortage of helicopter mechanics within that field. Or, there may not be anything in mining at the moment, but by the time you're ready to graduate, there may be openings. Therefore, it's important to choose a field that you are interested in and have some aptitude for. It is easier to find your way around in a field that interests you.

How education helped two women find jobs

Leslie wanted to be a carpenter. She enrolled in a program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) that prepared women for trade occupations by teaching assertiveness, body building, carpentry, electrical and plumbing, industrial first aid, computers, and small business skills.

For the work experience part of the course, she worked with a contractor building a house. At the end of it, he offered her an apprenticeship as a carpenter. But Leslie had discovered that she found carpentry boring and repetitive.

What she really liked was the first aid course. She decided she wanted to be an ambulance attendant and found out what courses she needed and how to go about getting hired as an ambulance driver. She now has a part-time job as an ambulance attendant.

Karen had been fascinated with sign language from the first time she saw it. She decided at the age of 39 to take a course in it, even though there aren't many job openings in the field. Besides doing her course work, she read everything she could on sign language and got involved by joining organizations and going to conferences and meetings related to communicating with hearing impaired people.

At one conference she heard about a job which she wanted near her home. Before Karen finished her course, she wrote to the school board to tell them when she would complete her training and be ready for work. She kept in touch with them and eventually the job came open. Since she was known in the field and by the school board and was available, she got the job.