BY KHADIJA KARIM

A number of career opportunities that exist in skilled trades and technologies within Ontario. So far, the government has 144 skilled trades such: as mechanical, electrical, automotive, and manufacturing. If your child is interested in a career in skilled trades and technologies, Skills Ontario will provide you with some helpful tips and resources to get your child started.

Skills Ontario offers week-long summer camps for grade seven and eight students. The camps provide children with the opportunity to experience multiple career paths with activities. Students can also participate in the Career Awareness Workshop where they will hear about many of Ontario’s skilled trades including construction and industrial. Parents and students may access the application provided by Skills Ontario, which includes an interactive quiz that will link student interests to a trade occupation.

Students in Grades 11 and 12 can learn more about apprenticeships with their guidance counselors, or OYAP coordinators. Most schools have a trades course, and students can participate in the Skills Ontario Competition. Volunteer opportunities are also there with Skills Ontario where students can experience and meet people in the trade.

Students in college interested in entering the trades should speak to their academic advisors. If students are currently in a trades, or technology program they can compete in the post-secondary Skills Ontario Competition that gives students a chance to connect with potential future employers and display their skills. Connecting with these people makes finding jobs easier for students.

Skills Ontario has a YouTube channel with videos about different trades careers, it also has a podcast called “Skills Ontario Trades & Tech Talk.” The podcast is about different careers and other things, such as post-secondary education and wages.

By exploring these resources, students can begin to use those experiences that will put them ahead in the skilled trades and technologies industry.

BY KAHA G.

Imagine being born into the trade of being a social media sensation at just four years old, with your mom running your account. Your mom posts sweet and innocent videos like “What I dress my daughter in vs. what grandma does,” and prank videos.

You climb the ladder of success until you’ve attained the title of the third, or fourth most popular four-year-old on TikTok with 17 million followers. Gaining the attention of local news stations, with the story of a single mom starting these videos to save memories now turned into a way to save money, attaining partnerships along the way. However, the fame dies down a bit.

Unfortunately, this is where your life takes a turn, when your mom starts taking video suggestions from viewers and the content becomes extremely suspicious and suggestive to the point where articles are being sent out in concern and worry for you. All this happening without your knowledge.

This is the story of Wren Eleanor, and by the end of this article, you might want to stop posting, or even remove your child from posts ever again.

“Wren.eleanor,” a mom-run TikTok account that started up around 2019-2020, has been facing major controversy over the past couple of years. In the beginning, Jacqueline (the mom) posted content about her child similar to the other mom influencers, but there were only a couple of instances where her videos went viral. However, there was one “shortcut to success,” when a video of Wren was posted showing her bare leg, or her wearing a bikini with the hashtag “bikini model.” While the intention might have been completely pure, this was the start of Jacqueline’s eye raising behaviour.

Her videos began consisting of Wren eating suggestively shaped foods. For example, Jacqueline would post videos of Wren eating pickles, whipped cream, foot-long corn dogs, Costco hot dogs, her taking large bites, food being fed to her in questionable ways, and being pushed to levels of discomfort.

This wasn’t the only change happening; her video thumbnails would be with Wren with an open mouth, a really big food item, or even a flash of her diaper. Even some speculated that these videos were orchestrated in response to being paid for by viewers, as in one of her videos, Wren was chewing a piece of gum and then said, “I swallowed it,” and right after saying “Is that okay?”

Her videos weren’t only attracting views on TikTok, but the number of people saving Wren’s videos using the “Favourite” feature was on the rise as well. It was evident that Wren’s anonymous viewers enjoyed the content so much that watching it once was not enough. For instance, a video of her eating a corn dog got more than 100,000 favourites, and in others it reached over 400,000.

Jacqueline started facing controversy around July 2022, when news outlets began reporting how creepy the content was. They pointed out how her fanbase wasn’t only just mothers and kids, but grown men saying things like, “Hear me out,” “She kinda hot,” and “There is no way that baby does not have a boyfriend,” to say what they are going to do to her, if you catch my drift. This wasn’t the only thing concerning the public, but it was the searches associated with her name such as: deep fake, scandalous outfits, pickles, and fair eats.

Lastly, in December 2023, TikTok stopped paying content creators for videos under a minute long, which made up quite a lot of Wren and Jacqueline videos, and people were asking if she was not in it for the money then what she was doing it for? Well, from an investigation by the New York Times into child influencers, parent-run accounts are known to sell: “photos, exclusive chat sessions, and even worn leotards to their fanbase.” If these allegations were true, then this means that Jacqueline isn’t just ignorant, and that she’s purposely exploiting her child to grown men for money.

Overall, I acknowledge that posting your children online should be a safe thing to do. It’s not fair that creeps are tuning in too, but the fact of the matter is that they ARE watching your children, and it is YOUR responsibility to protect your children from these lowlifes.

We all wish the world was a safe place to share whatever cute moments of our children with others, but that’s simply not the kind of place we live in, and it will never be. So please, protect your children from the watchful eyes of people with ill intent, and if you want to keep your children online still, then block, or remove people you don’t know from your followers, and private your account for only close friends and family to see because we truly never know who is watching.

https://www.parents.com/mom-of-tiktok-preschooler-wren-eleanor-facing-backlash-8612986

• “Spill” (YouTube channel), the title was “This child needs to be saved, from her mother and her fans.” The link to it is this:
  https://youtu.be/JLHYskB-ydM?si=2FEYeQjWcjQkkB1m

BY KHADIJA KARIM

Recently, there’s been a lot of concern about a group of young people called “NEETs.” NEET stands for “Not in Employment, Education, or Training.” These young adults, usually between 18 and 24 years old, aren’t working, going to school, or learning anything new. About 16% of Americans at this age are NEETs.

This problem isn’t just in the United States. In 2023, around 11.2% of young people aged 15-24 in the U.S. were considered to be NEETs.

This means that a lot of young people are struggling to find jobs or continue their education. The problem of youth unemployment isn’t only in the U.S. In Canada, youth unemployment hit 13.5% in June 2024, the highest since 2014. In China, youth unemployment reached 17.1% in July 2024. Many college graduates can’t find jobs, forcing them to move back home. Similar issues are happening in Africa and South Korea.

There are many reasons why so many people are becoming NEETs. One big reason is weak job networks that means NEETs are not talking to the right people who can help and guide them to find the right jobs for them. Some other people have children, but no access to childcare, making it hard to work. Also, some of these NEETs require childcare, which is not so easily accessible, so it makes it hard for these NEETs to focus on their careers.

Unfortunately, some of these NEETs have disabilities, which stops them from working as jobs are not so open to accommodate people with disabilities. Last but not least transportation also serves as a roadblock towards getting better employment chances.

Many of these youth live in rural areas where job opportunities are often hard to get. They often come from families making less than $50,000 a year. Nearly 70% of these young people have only a high school diploma, and not great education, which makes it even harder to find good jobs. Also, labour jobs such as construction are decreasing at a rapid speed as technology is taking over. Even people with more education are struggling to find jobs because companies are hiring fewer people.

Although the NEETs hands are tied and they are not able to make many changes in the economy, NEETs should try networking more frequently and still work in lower positions as they might pay off in the future. The best thing NEETs can do is gear up against unemployment and fight it head on!