Having mentored hundreds and engaged with thousands of high school, post secondary and recent graduates, we see the same questions reoccurring. Family, society and authority will ask us: what is your next step, what do you want to do, can you even make money at that? Often times, we are compelled to answer these questions; however, we are not even sure of the answers ourselves. It is as if we are looking at the horizon beyond, but we have not taken the time to look at the horizon within.
GradusOne’s Co-founder and Chief Motivating Officer, Sam (Ajit) Thiara speaks about how many years ago he graduated from university and did not feel prepared for the work environment. “I walked across the stage and got my degree and as I walked off stage, it felt like a giant door slammed behind me and I was on my own.” Sam does not fault the university as that is what the environment was like many years ago. You go to school, graduate and then go out and look for work.
GradusOne launched March 4th, 2015 to help high school, post secondary and recent graduates in their life and career. Gradus is Latin for step so we are step one to help you move forward. With a team of dedicated individuals, the idea is to offer support in the journey of the student or recent alumni. Often times this audience feels that if they don’t know the answer, they should decide on something and that they are the only ones going through this. Understandably, this can be a concern but there are also other aspects that need to be changed. For example, many young people feel that careers are linear, A to B. Instead, you will have many twists and turns in life and rather than fighting them, see how you maneuver them and embrace them. Also, you might not really understand an area of business or a career but think it is right. When teaching, it is common for a student to say that they want to work in Human Resources because they like people or decide on law because they believe they know what law is. We also encounter many people who are at a fork in the road for their career and are unsure which way to go. They are dealing in absolutes and feel that if they take the wrong path, their life and career are over. They stay at the fork for fear of making the wrong decision.
At GradusOne, we have come up with a comprehensive plan to ‘Guide’, ‘Connect’ and ‘Engage’. When we say ‘Guide’, what we mean by this is creating an online platform of information and resources to help students better understand themselves and the journey. For example, we have hundreds of career spotlights that are the stories of those who have succeeded in post secondary and careers and share their insight. ‘Connect’ is where we offer various events and want the member to come out and hear about an industry sector by industry experts and for the attendee to meet and interact with key people. Finally, ‘Engage’ is where we will connect a member to someone in industry so they can have a meaningful discussion about the career, how one could get into that line of business and if they decide to carry on the discussion for the future, that will be up to the two of them.
People have asked us if we are a mentorship program and our response is that we provide all the valuable tools and guiding before you get a mentor or coach so you are able to have a solid interaction. GradusOne is intended to complement our educational system so that we can further enhance what is already out there. We have already received interest from high schools, post secondary institutions and companies. All feel that the work we are undertaking is valuable to help an audience that needs guidance and support.
We invite students, families and organizations to check out what we have created at http://gradusone.com and see how we can help an audience that needs support.
