I told her I wanted to take the course, and I wanted to know what my employment prospects were. She told me EIC requires me to phone employers and other people who are already employed in the field, to see if what they do is actually what I'd like to do, which seemed reasonable. Except that it's very hard to figure out where to phone, if you don't already have connections in the field.

After I didn't get anywhere with Agriculture Employment, I went home and began looking through the Yellow Pages. What do you look up? Greenhouses? Places that employ lots of people aren't listed because they aren't looking for retail sales.

I tried doing cold phone calls from the phone book which is a hard thing for me to do. It was very anxiety producing, and only minorly useful. EIC required me to ask employers what kind of jobs are available and whether they had heard of the course I wanted to take and would they consider it a qualification. One greenhouse grower told me that people could have gone to school and still be lousy workers or they could be good workers and people who don't go to school could be good workers or lousy. But if I went to school that would show I had a real interest in horticulture, so he would hire me to give me a try. It's a get-in-the-door.

I phoned the college counsellor who said, you should talk directly to the department. The department gave me the name of one ex-student, who told me about the job they were doing and how long it took to find it. They said they had to do a lot of entry level stuff and keep sending out resumés for a while. I shouldn't expect to get a really good job right away.

I wanted to do as much as possible before I went and talked to the Mission office. I talked to five places and a couple of people who had worked in the field. I even went to the apprenticeship branch. They told me that there is an apprenticeship in horticulture, but you get a job first and then talk to them. And they didn't have any written stuff around the apprenticeship in horticulture. I tried to phone places in the Fraser Valley where apprentices work but they were mostly in landscaping. It was a little unclear to me. It cost a mint in phone calls because where I live almost anywhere is long distance.

I went back to the Mission office and they gave me a lot more useful places to go. They told me the name of a person to phone at Agriculture Employment, and exactly how to phrase the questions, which was helpful. They said to ask, "What are the growth parts of the industry," not "What jobs do you have." So I did phone and got more information, and there was more running around.

I went to Mission CEC once and talked to one person. She told me to do more research and come back and talk to somebody else. The second time they finally gave me some of the names I needed to do the research.

When I went to see the man who gives permission for training, I sat in the office saying to myself "I will be treated with respect." I had to keep reminding him that I was asking him for something specific and was he going to say yes or no? I got some really good information out of him.

When I went to CEC and I told them that I could get into the course in January, they said what is the matter with this course that there are seats left in it? I told them what the school had said - most people can't afford the two-year course. EIC doesn't sponsor two-year courses, and that's why the one-year course was completely packed, but the two-year course would let me in. He told me that educational institutions are in the field of selling seats so you shouldn't necessarily believe what they tell you about their course. So, it makes sense that you should double check the information you get from the institution.