EDITORIAL
Western to Workopolis: No thanks
Fisherman's Friend
Jonathan Yazer
News Editor
In the hunt for summer employment, it was
only inevitable that I would cross paths with WorkopolisCampus.com,
promoted as “Canada’s biggest job site for students.”
There is what should be considered an insignificant catch
to viewing the lucrative job postings made available on the
website: students have to register their profile using an access
code which can be obtained from their university or college.
Conveniently, a hyperlink on the site produces a list of participating
schools and the phone numbers of their career centres so that
it should be easy as pie for a student to obtain an access
code, register his profile, apply for a job and get on with
his or her merry life.
Unless he or she attends Western.
The list of schools on this site appears longer than the annual
Maclean’s survey. Listed, of course, are most of the
usual suspects like McGill and Queen’s, but also some
lesser-known schools.
The research needed to find the phone numbers of the career
centres at such prestigious yet mysterious institutions such
as Cégep de Rivière-du-Loup, NorQuest College,
something called TriOS and University College of the Cariboo
must have been exhaustive. Yet for some inexplicable reason,
the list neglects a little unassuming school in London, Ontario,
and I’m not talking about Fanshawe.
When it comes to lists, Western’s record is not sterling,
regardless of what some propagandists may say. Perhaps it is
fitting that the year Ivey failed to make the Wall Street Journal’s
list of the world’s best business schools is the same
year that its students are being denied access to job postings
on Canada’s largest student job website. The piles of
money spent on tuition fees and grade boosting was all for
nothing, I’m afraid.
There are obviously other websites, job listings and centres
designed to assist students of any stripe in finding and applying
for a job within a variety of professional and volunteer settings.
Unfortunately, students at Western will have access to fewer
of those opportunities than students at most other universities.
That’s a shame and it should change. Even if it’s
not for the sake of protecting Western’s reputation as
a school that believes in preparing students for the working
world, at least make the change for the sake of students desperately
looking for a job.
