Job Shadow Day at the Smiltene Municipality Council

Today, 13 February, the annual career education programme Job Shadow Day took place, during which the Smiltene Municipality Council offered young people the opportunity to become job shadows and follow professionals in various fields.

In total, eight job shadows from various parishes and municipalities followed the work of employees of the Smiltene Municipality Council, including from Grundzāle Parish, Bilska Parish, the town of Smiltene and even Ape Municipality.

There was a wide range of choices. The young people chose to shadow the chairperson of the council, an IT specialist, a tourism information centre specialist, the artistic director of the cultural centre, a public relations specialist, a sound and lighting operator and a real estate specialist.

The reasons why the young people chose to shadow representatives of these professions varied. One reason was to gain new experience and improve their knowledge, as well as to find out what tasks professionals have to perform and how difficult or easy they are.

The young people acknowledge that the experience they gained helps them understand whether they would like to pursue the chosen profession in the future.

We were very interested in how the council’s public relations specialists, whom we had chosen to shadow today, work. At first, it seems difficult to cope with everything because there is so much work, but it is nevertheless exciting because every day is different and more and more new experience is gained. Overall, this experience was interesting for us.

Job Shadow Day, organised throughout Latvia by the business education organisation Junior Achievement Latvia, takes place across the country. Its aim is to promote links between the content of students’ education and real life, helping them purposefully connect the two and plan their careers.