Young people are often asked to choose a career before they have had much chance to discover what fits. Dr. Candy Ho, Chancellor’s Chair at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and an internationally recognized career development scholar, argues that uncertainty can be useful when it keeps us curious and moving forward.

Chapters
00:09 Meet Dr. Candy Ho

01:09 What Origami Taught Candy About Her Career

03:07 Take the Pressure Off Career Planning

04:20 Why a “Wrong” Internship Can Still Be Valuable

06:34 Stop Asking Kids What They Want to Be

08:37 Meaningful Work and Making a Living

10:05 The Wisdom of Indecision

12:15 What Young Workers Bring to the Job

13:19 What Employers Should Teach

15:56 What Work-Integrated Learning Adds

18:25 Who Are Career Influencers?

22:40 Skills for a Green Workforce

24:33 The Skills Awareness Gap

26:38 Careers Were Never a Straight Line

28:58 Would You Rather?

Links

Discovering Careers

An Organisational Guide to Skills for Green Workforce Transformation

Curricula for Change

Dr. Candy Ho at Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Challenge Factory

Canadian Career Development Foundation

Candy Ho on LinkedIn

For too long, the skilled trades have been treated as a fallback. Mike Holmes Jr. and Ian MacFayden want to change that.

The co-founders of Point Load Media and hosts of The Trade Life join Stacey and Jacquie to talk about why young people are still pushed toward university, what it will take to put the trades on equal footing, and just how many career paths can open up once someone learns a trade.

Ian shares his own unlikely path from university and accounting to carpentry and entrepreneurship, while Mike reflects on growing up with one of the most recognizable names in construction and building a professional identity of his own.

They also dig into what employers should expect from young people entering the trades, whether Canada has a shortage of workers or a shortage of skills, and why mentorship and craftsmanship matter as much as recruitment. Plus, Ian introduces Project Network, a professional networking platform built specifically for the skilled trades.

Along the way, they tackle construction’s resistance to new technology, building better homes, a 135-kilometre ultramarathon and, naturally, whether Mike would rather build a house with Ian or spend a month filming television with his dad.

Chapters

00:44 Meet Mike Holmes Jr. and Ian MacFayden

01:40 The Kelly Ripa Construction Question

03:42 Growing Up with the Holmes Name

05:53 What a 135-Kilometre Race Teaches You About Business

08:56 How Mike and Ian Met

10:26 The Birth of Point Load Media

11:33 Life in the Skilled Trades

12:34 Why the Trades Are Still Treated as a Backup Plan

18:03 What Should Come After High School?

19:20 Changing Perceptions of the Skilled Trades

21:11 Where a Career in the Trades Can Lead

24:24 Learning the Business Side of the Trades

25:59 Introducing Project Network

31:15 Building a Network for the Trades

37:26 Making Tradespeople Easier to Find

40:19 What Young People Should Expect on the Job Site

44:26 Worker Shortage or Skills Shortage?

46:47 Building Better, Not Just Building More

49:24 What Would You Ask the Construction Industry?

51:27 Technology and Women in Construction

51:55 Why Construction Resists New Technology

54:46 Would You Rather?

Learn More:

Point Load Media

Project Network

The Trade Life Podcast

Alberta’s collegiate model is giving students an earlier, more hands-on look at career pathways, and helping employers build the skilled workforce they need.

David Pye, Dean of the School of Trades and Technology at Red Deer Polytechnic, joins Stacey and Jacquie to explain how collegiates bring K–12 schools, post-secondary institutions and industry together. They explore how the Central Alberta Collegiate Institute is helping students test-drive the skilled trades, build confidence and move into apprenticeship with a clearer sense of where they want to go.

David also challenges old assumptions about trades careers, explains how apprenticeship credentials can open doors well beyond the jobsite, and shares why giving young people permission to explore, and even fail, can help them find the right path.

Chapters

00:00 What Is a Collegiate?

02:05 Building the Central Alberta Collegiate

03:06 Beyond the High School Shop Class

05:10 Building the Skilled Trades Pipeline

06:49 Bringing Industry into the Classroom

09:47 Changing Parents’ Perceptions of the Trades

12:58 Where a Trades Career Can Lead

14:42 Why David Is Passionate About Trades Education

16:44 From High School to WorldSkills

20:02 What Collegiate Could Mean for Alberta

22:00 Advice to David’s Younger Self

23:14 Would You Rather?

Red Deer Polytechnic

Red Deer Polytechnic Dual Credit programs

Central Alberta Collegiate Institute – RDP overview

What are Alberta's business leaders talking about when they're out on the golf course?

In this special bonus episode of Take on the Future, Stacey Allan and Jacquie Daniels head to the 15th annual Eric Newell Kidz in Careers Golf Classic at Heritage Pointe Golf Club to find out. They jump in a golf cart to chat with employers, industry leaders, and long-time supporters of CAREERS about leadership, workforce development, and the future of talent in Alberta.

The Eric Newell Kidz in Careers Golf Classic is CAREERS' annual fundraising tournament. Proceeds help connect Alberta students with meaningful career exploration opportunities and paid internships, giving young people valuable workplace experience while helping employers build their future workforce.

Along the way, you'll hear practical advice on taking risks, investing in people, creating strong workplace cultures, and why developing young talent isn't just the right thing to do—it's good business.

00:00 Welcome from the golf course
00:35 Why diversification helped Rising Edge Group grow
02:00 From RAP student to Fountain Tire partner
03:10 Advice for your younger self
04:25 Eric Newell on investing in Alberta's future workforce
05:45 Why RAP students are a smart business investment
06:50 Preparing Alberta's workforce for future opportunities
08:00 Key takeaways from a day of workforce conversations

Labour shortages dominate conversations about construction, but Bill Black argues they're only part of the story.

Bill is President and CEO of the Calgary Construction Association. He joins Stacey Allan and guest host Ann Normand to discuss why better project delivery, stronger leadership, and more thoughtful career pathways matter just as much as recruiting more workers. They also explore how construction careers can provide tremendous opportunity, why employers need to rethink how they develop talent, and what parents, educators, and industry can do to help more young people find work that's the right fit.

00:00 Introduction
01:18 From Scotland to construction leadership
04:53 Why construction is harder than it needs to be
08:27 Collaboration over lowest-price procurement
09:48 Why the labour shortage isn't the whole story
13:34 Can leadership be taught?
17:00 A real-world example of collaboration working
19:20 Building the next generation of skilled workers
21:03 What Bill would tell young people considering construction
25:06 Why finding the right career fit matters
28:32 Why networking opens doors
33:16 Hiring people, not job descriptions
36:35 What motivates people
38:40 Why construction deserves more respect
40:42 What's next for Bill Black
42:42 Rapid Fire

Calgary Construction Association Website

From jail to Yale to a career in the skilled trades, Alex McNamara’s path has been anything but conventional.

Alex is a welder, rigger, technical director, construction educator and founder of Built Pretty. She joins Stacey Allan and Jacqueline Daniels to talk about addiction and recovery, finding purpose through hands-on work, breaking into male-dominated spaces, and building a career by saying “Yes.”

They also dig into what employers can do to attract and retain more women in the trades, what good mentorship looks like, and how Alex built an audience of more than 400,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok by making construction relatable and accessible.

In this episode:

00:00 Introduction
01:58 Alex’s Backstory: Addiction and Finding the Trades
10:02 Fear of Rejection and the Power of Yes
14:01 Women in the Trades
16:00 How Employers Can Reach More Women
17:38 Embracing Femininity
21:19 Mentorship
25:13 Workplace Safety Culture
26:44 Harnessing Social Media and Personal Branding
32:05 Inspiring Others Through Information Media
35:00 Advice for Young Women About the Trades
36:28 Would You Rather?
37:57 Conclusion

About Alex McNamara

Alex McNamara is a Nashville-based technical director, welder, rigger and construction educator. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, she has worked across Broadway, large-scale music festivals and live entertainment builds around the world.

Through Built Pretty and her social media platforms, Alex shares an unfiltered look at life and careers in the skilled trades, reaching more than 400,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok.

Connect with Alex

Built Pretty Website
Instagram
TikTok

Learn more about CAREERS: https://www.careersnextgen.ca/

Follow Take on the Future: https://www.careersnextgen.ca/podcast/

The path to a meaningful career is rarely a straight line, and the same can be said for building a strong workforce.

In this episode, Stacey Allan and Jacquie Daniels sit down with Liz Kovach, President of Supply-Build Canada (and, in her own words, the self-proclaimed "Lumber Lady"), to explore how employers can attract, develop, and retain talent in an increasingly competitive labour market.

Liz shares how an unexpected career journey led her to Canada's lumber and building materials industry, why some of the best careers are the ones people don't know exist, and what employers can do to inspire the next generation of workers. The conversation also explores entrepreneurship, mentorship, internships, innovation, and why getting comfortable may be the biggest barrier to growth.

Learn more

Supply-Build Canada
https://www.supplybuild.ca

Let's Go Build
https://www.letsgobuild.ca

A journalist. A musician. And somehow... a workforce podcast.

Welcome to Take on the Future—building tomorrow's workforce, today.

Before we dive into our interviews, we're taking a few minutes to introduce ourselves and share why we started the podcast.

Follow Take on the Future on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or YouTube so you don't miss upcoming episodes.