Canadian Association for Supported Employment

Exploring the Childcare Industry. Facilitated by: Life Directions, March of Dimes Canada and ODEN
The employers learned a lot about inclusive hiring and said they’d be happy to mentor other jobseekers in the future.

One of our jobseekers came to us from Life Directions in Ontario with a passion for working with children. This jobseeker said they’d like to obtain on-the-job experience in a childcare centre to determine if working in such a setting would be a good fit.

Thankfully we were able to connect with Kids and Us Community Centre in the town of Durham, Ontario and they were more than happy to mentor our client. During this MentorAbility Experience, our client toured the facility, asked questions about the field, and left with plenty of insight into the responsibilities of working in childcare. Also, the employer learned a lot about inclusive hiring and said they’d be happy to mentor other clients in the future.

Our client found that working with children came easy to them and that the hardest part was keeping the kids focused. As such, they preferred working with very young children that didn’t move around as much. Their main takeaway was that “kids cry for four reasons; they’re hungry, need a diaper change, tired, or want to play,” and we’d say that’s pretty good advice!

Many thanks to Kids and Us Community Centre for making another successful mentorship possible!