THE FUTURE OF WORK
THE FUTURE OF WORK
Work and Labour Studies Program, Department of Social Sciences
Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, York University
THE FUTURE OF WORK
AS/SOSC 1510 – 2018-19
Essay on Your Career Prospects
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You are encouraged to work on your passion – whether it be teaching, acting, music, dance or something else in the arts, even if they do not guarantee a high salary or even a regular job. Such people often support themselves with a “job” unless or until they actually get paid to follow their dream.
Given the theme of the course is “Building a Better World”, you might also consider working for moral, social, political or economic change. You might follow in the tradition of the great prophets, teachers, revolutionaries, human rights activists, union organizers – those who ended slavery and apartheid, struggled for democracy, won equal rights for women, the 8 hour work day, union recognition, medicare or fair taxation. You could help save our environment and end climate change, overcome inequality and injustice, or help us achieve economic democracy.
During the second term we will be focused on Working for a Future. This fall we heard the world’s scientists say we have only 12 years to act before climate change will lead us towards irreversible disaster. Now they are saying we have only 11 years…and even the US Government agrees. We cannot chose: “It’s not about jobs or the environment — it’s both — or neither. There are no jobs on a dead planet.” Given the urgency, many of us are feeling a rising sense of anxiety and a desire to act — to intervene somehow to ensure a better future.
So we will be focusing on how we can help save our world — whatever our occupation. We’ll need everyone to pitch in — just like all Canadians joined the war effort in 1939 when fascism threatened our democracies. We’ll need economists, union leaders and business people to help convert our factories to produce electric cars, to cite one example. The youngest woman ever elected to the US Congress, 29 year old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is attracting huge support for a Green New Deal, a plan to eliminate US greenhouse gas emissions and create millions of jobs. Young people here in Canada are also pressuring our politicians for climate action.
Your essay should describe how you can help avert this threat — whichever profession, career or job you pursue. AND (for bonus marks!), you should also do your best to describe how climate change will impact your particular profession. The TA’s, your Librarian and I will do our best to help with your research on these questions.
OUTLINE AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
You will first be required to submit an outline and an annotated bibliography, worth 5%. It should be submitted in class on Wednesday, Feb 7th.
You will benefit from using the writing texts recommended for our class (or an equivalent):
Van Rys, John, Randall VanderMey, Verne Meyer and Patrick Sebranek.
Writing Life: A Canadian Students Guide to Thinking, Writing and Researching, 1st Ed. Toronto: Nelson Canada, 2015. See Chapter 21, “Getting Started: From Planning Research to Evaluating Sources”
Klassen, Thomas R. and John A. Dwyer, How to Succeed at University (and Get a Great Job!) Mastering the Critical Skills You Need for School, Work, and Life. 3rd Ed. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2015. $19.95 or free online
- The outline should identify your career choice and briefly (in a few sentences) describe your approach. (Although such exploratory essays do not require a thesis, you might say the research question Is “Why do you want to be a… [lawyer or nurse, etc]?” and your thesis could be “I want to be a lawyer in order to help defend the wrongly accused”– or “it best suits my argumentative personality”, or “my desire for high status and income”…) It should then summarize some of the key points you will be making in your essay (in 1-2 pages – you can use point form).
- Your “annotated bibliography” should offer a list of FIVE (5) sources done in proper academic format. Use the style agreed upon for your tutorial (eg. APA or MLA…), making sure that you include all the elements required and use the proper punctuation. (see, for example, Van Rys et al, Writing Life, Ch 25 on MLA and Ch 26 on APA)
For each source, include a few sentences describing how or why that source will be useful for your essay. Don’t just go online and look up a list of library materials. You will have to examine each source to see if it is useful or irrelevant – eg. NOT books from the 1960’s about computer programming, or articles about being a lawyer in the USA… (see Van Rys et al, Writing Life, pp. 418-423 on “Engaging and Evaluating Sources” and “Annotate the Sources”)
SOURCES – You will probably come up with a mix of material. The final page of this handout lists “Where You Can Find Relevant Information”…
- Books
- Articles from periodicals
- Government reports – various levels of government produce reports about different industries and the employment prospects in different fields…
- Studies done by industry associations or unions about the trends in their area
- the Canadian Bankers Association, Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, etc
- Website material – make sure that you cite it correctly!
- Interview with someone working in your chosen field – You are strongly recommended to speak with someone who can give you a first hand, up-to-date account of what is happening in your chosen field. It could be an employer or an employee – or preferably both!
Before your interview you should do enough research so that you do not waste their time – eg. asking for information that you can find on their website! You should come with a list of questions…. Your interview could take the form of either: a) a personal interview = face to face; b) personal communication via email; or c) a telephone interview. (see Van Rys et al, Writing Life, pp.440-441 on “Conducting Interviews”)
You might ask the person you are interviewing (either in person or over the phone):
- How many people are working for their firm, agency or department? In what capacities?
- How many jobs – and job openings — are there in your field in the Toronto area, in Ontario, in Canada? How many have been people have been hired to do this work in recent years, and how many do they plan to hire in the next few years?
- What are the important trends affecting employment, and how will they affect your prospects?
- What qualifications do they require for the job that you are seeking?
- What are the working conditions? — eg. hours, vacations, union, etc.
- What sort of wages or benefits might you expect?
- Is the work stable and secure or rather precarious?
You must include such interviews in your bibliography (list of sources).
You can cite them as follows: (here is an example)
- Personal interview with Daniel Johnson, Supervisor of Staff Training, National Institute of Mental Health, Oxford, Ontario, February 23, 2015.
Can I write the outline and the essay in the first person? — You can write the Outline and the Introduction and Conclusion of your essay in the first person (using “I”). For example, your Introduction could explain why you want to be a plumber or whatever — and your Conclusion could inform the reader whether your research has confirmed your initial impulse — or forced you to change your mind! The main part of the essay (based on your research) should be in the third person (that’s where you state the facts in an objective manner)
YOUR ESSAY
The essay itself will be worth 20%. It should be submitted to Turnitin, then in class on Wednesday, March 21st. Late submissions will be docked ½ percentage grade per day.
It should be 1500-2500 words, or roughly 6-10 pages double-spaced. (Please include page numbers – do not count the cover page!)
YOUR ESSAY SHOULD INCLUDE:
- a) An overview of the sector, industry, or occupation
- Size – total number of employees, number of employers, size of employers
- Range of possible jobs
- Public or private sector, primary or secondary labour market, secure or precarious, unionized or not…
- b) Details about the position you are seeking:
- What is involved — a description of what the job entails
- Qualifications required
- Wages, benefits, working conditions
- Supply of competing candidates
- Demand — how many jobs are on offer each year?
- c) How your career prospects are being affected by economic, social or political trends affecting the sector, industry, or occupation [THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT SECTION]
- Structural and cyclical changes – eg. free trade / globalization, neo-liberalism, the recent recession, increasing competition, outsourcing, technological change, climate change, etc;
- Changing consumer taste / results of marketing.
- Changing political climate – increased /reduced resources or budgets
- d) Overall assessment – your conclusions
- Is there an opportunity for me to make a contribution?
- Is this job a good match with my personality?
- Can I make a living somehow?
- Are there other benefits – travel, power, friendship…
- e) Bibliography (without annotations)
- List the sources in alphabetical order
- Bibliographies should be single spaced.
- Any interviews you do should be listed in your bibliography: Eg. Personal interview with Daniel Johnson, Supervisor of Staff Training, National Institute of Mental Health, Oxford, Ontario, February 23, 2010.
WHERE YOU CAN FIND RELEVANT INFORMATION
Working in Canada – The Working in Canada Web site provides job seekers, workers and those who are new to the Canadian labour market with the information required to make informed decisions about where to live and work. The site can assist individuals who are searching for work or looking to make career decisions.
WorkinginCanada.gc.ca is the Government of Canada’s leading source for labour market information. It offers users, free and authoritative occupational and career information such as educational requirements, main duties, wage rates and salaries, current employment trends and outlooks.
Reference librarians at Scott Library and/or Government Documents
Professional associations or unions representing those working in your field.
Face-to-face meetings with employers and/or people working in your field.
Career Centre at York – http://www.yorku.ca/careers/
202 McLaughlin College, Phone: 416-736-5351 • Email: career@yorku.ca
Monday to Thursday: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm Friday: 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
You are welcome to visit their very small career resource library…
Career Cruising — an online Canadian resource dedicated to education and occupations. There are profiles of occupations, outlooks, and descriptions of various jobs written by people who perform them. It’s an excellent site, easy to use, and very informative. We have a contract with Career Cruising here at the Career Centre and all York students have access to it through our account. Students can go to the Career Centre website (www.yorku.ca/careers), go to the “Students & New Grads” section, then look for the link to Career Cruising in the “Choose Your Future” area. They’ll need their Passport York account to get in.
Going Global. This is another online resource the Career Centre pays a fee to use so that all York students can have access to it through our site (the link is in the same place as Career Cruising, above). The information is primarily about overseas opportunities but if any of your students are considering international employment they might find a few interesting bits & pieces on this site. It’s primarily an opportunity posting board but there are a lot of country, company and occupation profiles, along with a variety of articles that might be useful.
Statistics Canada (www.statscan.gc.ca) has a variety of labour statistics in their “Labour” section and students can access reports on things like commuting, globalization & the labour market, wages & salaries, post-secondary field of study and labour market outcomes, etc.
Job Bank (www.jobbank.gc.ca) is another federal government site with job information. The part that would likely be of most use to your students would be the “Career Navigator” section. There’s a “Career Exploration” area within that section with a variety of resources for researching occupations and I believe it may include some labour market outlooks.
Human Resources & Skills Development Canada (www.hrsdc.gc.ca) is a great site for researching occupations. The most important section of the site is the NOC (National Occupation Classifications). If students go to the NOC part of the site and use the “NOC Code List” they can view a menu of the different occupational sectors in Canada with labour market information about the multitude of positions in each sector.
SOME ADDITIONAL TIPS ON WRITING AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
I draw your attention to the York Library website:
How to Write an Annotated Bibliography
An annotated bibliography is an alphabetical list of research sources (e.g. Books, articles, etc.) with a concise summary of the content and an assessment of its relevance.
Annotated bibliographies are often assigned at the beginning of a larger project.
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- How to prepare an annotated bibliography
- (Cornell U)
- Write an annotated bibliography
- (UC Santa Cruz)
- Annotated Bibliographies
- (U Kansas)
- How to write annotated bibliographies
- (MUN)
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Style guides for footnotes and bibliographies
Proper citation is important for all scholarly work. Style guides, or style manuals, provide detailed information about how to use a particular citation style for various media formats. The above menu will take you to selections of citation style guides. The electronic guides do not include all the rules and formats of the citation style; the printed style guides have more rules and examples. ____________________________________________________________
HOW TO EVALUATE AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Take into account four factors:
- Good selection of material (quantity and quality of sources)
- Your analysis or evaluation of how that material will be useful — note that you are expected to produce a “critical” or “evaluative” annotation.
- Proper bibliographic style (we would prefer to see APA…used consistently.)
4. Your writing (If you cannot make yourself understood then we have a real communications problem!)
You can earn high marks for this assignment if you follow the rules, and quite low marks if you try to do this assignment in a hurry. This sort of basic research is not rocket science, but it can be tedious!