Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 09/01) - It was a day when school and careers came together as a learning experience for both parent and child alike.

The eighth annual Take our Kids to Work Day saw Grade 9 students from both high schools get a taste of the working world on Wednesday.

Some learned about the diamond industry with Diavik, while others moved into the public sector for the morning and afternoon.

Over at the GNWT Department of Public Works, a group of students learned what it was like to be an engineer. They did a check of the building's heating and ventilation system, and got a primer course in mechanics and electronics.

"Being an electrician would be fun," said St. Patrick high school student Jackie Delorme.

"That little switchboard thing was cool. We had 10 little wires we would have to hook up to make the light work."

Sir John student Kevin Rattray's dad is the department's deputy minister -- Bruce Rattray. Like his father, Rattray is thinking about a career in engineering some day.

"Public Works showed us a lot of different branches (in engineering)," Rattray marvelled. "There are so many."

Interestingly, Kevin's dad once considered becoming a veterinarian before going on to engineering.

"Some time later, after some aptitude tests when I was about your age, it was decided that I would be better off being an engineer," Bruce Rattray joked with the students. Over at Stanton Regional Hospital, Kevin Sosiak was learning from his dad about the facility's computer nerve centre. Jim Sosiak is the hospital's computer technician analyst.

It was Kevin's first visit to his father's place of employment.

"It's kind of confusing -- all the different parts," wondered Kevin, amid blinking lights and other assorted doo-hickeys.

Nonetheless, Kevin hopes to have a job programming computer games one day.

"Dad's job helps," Kevin mused.

"I guess he knows what I'm doing here now," said Jim Sosiak. "Staring at computer monitors all day."