Food and Beverage Ontario's Taste Your Future program partners with Ontario School Counsellors' Association for youth career planning

GUELPH, ON, Sept. 12, 2018 /CNW/ - Food and Beverage Ontario has partnered with Ontario School Counsellors' Association / Association des conseillères et des conseillers d'orientation scolaire de l'Ontario (OSCA/ACOSO) to implement new ways of sharing information with secondary school students about careers in the food and beverage processing sector.

The partnership with Ontario School Counsellors' Association is supporting Taste Your Future's youth engagement strategy by providing guidance counsellors in schools across the province with career information, resources and employer connections.

"We have partnered with Food and Beverage Ontario's Taste Your Future program to develop a student career guide, inform school boards of the Specialist High Skills Major in Food Processing and to connect counsellors with the Stir up a Career Student Bursary Contest," said Jennifer Boston, President, OSCA/ACOSO. "We believe this partnership model will provide counsellors with the most current and accurate career information available and be successfully replicated with other sectors."

The Taste Your Future program was launched in 2016 to raise awareness of careers in Ontario's food and beverage sector and to connect people with education and career pathways that will lead to a rewarding job. The industry is Ontario's number one manufacturing sector providing over 130,000 jobs. Careers in the industry are diverse requiring a range of skills and competencies. Categories of careers include food scientists, engineers, marketers, quality assurance and food safety specialists, production experts, chefs, butchers and bakers to name a few.

"Ontario School Counsellors' Association has a large network of guidance counsellors that support students in achieving their education and career goals. We know from our previous research that reaching young people with accurate career information is essential to changing the perception of jobs in our sector and in providing rewarding careers," said Norm Beal, CEO Food and Beverage Ontario.

About Taste Your Future
Taste Your Future is a unique industry-driven, province-wide campaign designed to raise awareness of careers in the food and beverage processing sector. The program connects with youth, new Canadians and second career individuals online and in person to tell the story of the industry and the education and career pathways to a successful career. A network of partners including FoodGrads, Food Processing Skills Canada, Colleges Ontario, University of Guelph, Western University, McMaster University, Durham College, Conestoga College, Niagara College, Centennial College, George Brown College, AgScape and EMC Canada make this program a success. Stay tuned for the latest food and beverage careers attitude and perception research and labour market information to be released this Fall 2018.  

SOURCE Food and Beverage Ontario

Media Contact: Isabel Dopta, Program Director, Taste Your Future, Food and Beverage Ontario, [email protected]