A sample shopping list for training and education might look something like this:

What do I want?

Personal information

• What do I like to do?
• What do I not like to do?
• Would I be willing to move?
• Would I be willing to work shifts?

Career information

• What kind of jobs are there?
• What kind of work does a mechanical engineer (for example) do?
• What kind of education do you need to be one?
• What kind of salary can you expect to make?

Labor market information

• What industries are expected to grow?
• What jobs will need to be filled in the future?

Where can I get training?

• Does this school have a good reputation in the field I want to go into?
• If I have to change schools, will I be able to transfer my credits?

How can I pay for it?

• Will Employment and Immigration Canada (EIC) sponsor me?
• Can I get scholarships, bursaries, or grants?
• Can I get a loan?

One difference between shopping at a superstore and shopping for education is that with education it's better if you take it a little bit at a time and don't try to find everything in one trip. What you find out along the way may change your mind about what you're looking for.

If you have a plan, you can always change it. If you don't have a plan, it's too easy to become over-whelmed by all the possibilities. Try to keep it simple, eliminating what you don't need as you go along.

How to ask questions

Asking questions is an art form. Fortunately, everyone is creative. What you want to do is ask the question that will cause the person you are talking to to give you the piece of information you are looking for at that moment. Try to avoid getting too much unnecessary information.

For example, if you say to an information person, "I want help finding out what I want to do. I don't know what kinds of jobs there are now, or what I would be good at," there is a good chance that they will direct you to career and labor market information, career exploration courses and projects, and counselors.

If, however, you say, "I want to know how your system works," there are three probable reactions. The information person might be speechless, or might start asking you questions to try to figure out why you want to know, or they may launch into a detailed explanation of the system which will be impossible to remember and mostly beside the point. You don't need to know how the whole system works to get what you want out of it.

If you focus on the thing you want to know, it makes it easier for the person who's trying to answer your question.

Another thing to remember when asking questions is that things change. No answer is carved in stone. A secretary told Sarah she couldn't start in January but that she should talk to the director anyway. The director told her she could start in January.

As you get further into the process, information changes. Diane was told at an EIC training information session that they did not fund night courses. When she called the course she was interested in, she found out that it was an exception. This particular course did run at night and was sponsored by EIC.

There are so many programs and so many changes and so many people, nobody's going to be right about everything. Take everything with a grain of salt and keep going. If you seem to hit a wall where someone is telling you that you can't do it, try asking them, "How can I do it?"