Have you ever taken a course and wondered how it could benefit you after you graduate? That is an understandable concern because most of the time, you are paying hundreds of dollars to take these courses so you want to make sure you can use the knowledge learned in these classes even past graduation. In this article, I have detailed four courses that will benefit you outside of the classroom, so even if you do not go into a career in their respective industries, you can still apply the knowledge and skills you learned in these courses.
Cooking
The St. James campus is famously known for having an amazing culinary program. If you are in the culinary program, you will already be taking these courses and will be exposed to world renowned chefs, however, even those who are not in the culinary program can also take some culinary courses as their electives. Why would you want to do so if you do not plan to work in the culinary industry? Well, because food is something everyone needs and who wouldn’t want to learn how to cook amazing food for themselves? Students have mentioned that they were able to take the food home and basically have their meals set for the week. Plus, since internationally-known chefs are teaching you how to cook the food, you can rest assured that the food will taste amazing. There are so many cooking courses to choose from. By “so many”, I am talking about over 20 courses just for cooking. You can take courses to learn BBQ-style cooking, brunch, charcuterie, pizza, and sushi. You could also take country specific cuisine such as african, indian, japanese cooking and so much more. If you are vegetarian or vegan, do not worry there are cooking courses for those as well. Cooking is an essential life skill that will definitely be useful for the rest of your life so these courses would be guaranteed to be helpful.
Emergency First Aid/Heartsaver CPR
This life skill is super important and you never know, you could save a life with it. Especially if you are pursuing a career in culinary, hotel, or tourism, you will be exposed to a lot of people so just in case, it would be beneficial for you to learn first aid and CPR. This course runs on the weekend so it is a good addition if your weekdays are already crammed. The course has been created in accordance with regulations set by The Canadian Red Cross and the Heart and Stroke Foundation, which are both internationally recognized and also meet the requirements of the Workers’ Safety Insurance Board.
American Sign Language
Over 3 million Canadians are hard of hearing and approximately 340,000 Canadians are deaf, so even if you do not have hearing problems yourself, sign language would be a useful skill allowing you to communicate with hundreds of thousands of people. In this course, you will get lots of chances to practice American Sign Language as you will be given in-class comprehension and reflection assessments to see if you are able to understand the language. You will also be partnered up and will have dialogue with your partner using ASL, so you can actually practice communicating. Not only will the course teach you how to communicate to others in conversation, but you will also learn how to hold presentations in ASL as well. Therefore, if you ever want to present a topic or tell a story to a larger group of people, you will be able to do it in ASL. The course teaches you how to ask for clarification in sign language if you do not understand something, and teaches you how to use culturally appropriate ASL.
Smart Serve
If you have ever applied to work at a restaurant that serves drinks, you know that they usually ask for you to attain your Smart Serve training, even if you are not directly working with the drinks. So if you want to work at a restaurant, this course will help you qualify for those positions. However, even if that is not your plan, this course would still be helpful because it teaches you how to determine the signs of intoxication and makes you know the responsibilities of those who serve alcohol to you. So, your fun night out can be safer with this knowledge as you can safely drink with your friends and identify if there seems to be anything wrong with your drinks. Therefore, this course would be important and helpful for you because it teaches you the importance of responsible drinking, from the seller’s end and from the consumer’s end.
Conclusion
As you can see, all these courses would definitely be the bang for your buck because they teach you life skills that will extend past the classroom. Be sure to check the course lists at George Brown to see if other courses interest you as there are new courses added from time to time as well.
