We are dedicated to providing user-friendly, quality resources to all of our users. Here are some of the comments we have received.
Career Cruising: The Complete Guidance System
"We have never had such a strong, positive response from our students, parents and faculty to a career development program."
Guidance Department Waukesha West High School
"The validity of Matchmaker is outstanding and it's easy to navigate. Speaking as a psychologist, and based upon feedback from other professional counselors in our region, the accuracy of Matchmaker is excellent."
Jerry Murray Psychologist ISD 287 Suburban Hennepin County
"...an innovative piece of career software that is obviously the product of a tremendous amount of research and production work...an effective and entertaining tool for adolescent and adult learners."
Marc Verhoeve Forest Heights Collegiate
"The combination of career information and personal insight is what really sets Career Cruising apart. The result of blending subjective opinion and objective data is a more complete perspective on any given occupation."
Neil Baldwin Career Advisor Sheridan College
"Career Cruising enabled me to see concrete steps to map out career directions for myself."
Student Kwantlen University College
"Career Cruising is the first career guidance program I've found that completely fits our needs. It has by far the best career portfolio component that I have ever seen."
Tamara Sturdy Counselor Riverton High School
"Your site is GREAT! We use it almost exclusively for our students looking for advice on specific programs, doing career searches, Matchmaker, and requesting information on colleges and universities. This is really the most comprehensive tool I have seen. Keep up the good work."
Len Whalen Regiopolis-Notre-Dame High School
"The service you provide in meeting our demands and requests is second to none."
David Gillis Career Advisor Steveston Sr. Secondary School
"I have a few students who are so disconnected from school that they do nothing most of the time in most of their classes - including mine. Well, when we started the unit on Career Cruising something changed...I attribute their engagement to the authenticity of the work and the quality of the Career Cruising web site."
Madeline Slovenz Park East High School
"It's better than anything I've seen from the big software companies. It's fantastic! And even my eight year old can use it!"
Jan Whitney Morningstar Secondary School
"My own three children all did it at home - grade 7, 9 and 11 - and all 3 of them spent 3 - 4 hours on it!!! They all enjoyed it and continue to go back! That's what I am telling the teachers - because the kids' words carry lots of weight!!!"
Judy Gatt Guidance Coordinator Simcoe Muskoka District Separate Board
"This is the finest resource for co-op students, or any student for that matter, regarding employment and career opportunities that I have ever seen. Congratulations!"
Luciano DiLoreto Co-op Teacher Father Henry Carr Secondary School
"We have begun Career Cruising in the computer lab with our Intermediate classes. They are hooked! I am especially pleased with how well your program fits in with our recent involvement in the Junior Achievers Program. Well done!"
Louise Hall Guidance Department Hopewell Avenue Public School
"If only all resource providers strived for excellence as you do, you certainly are a cut above the rest."
Roy Jenkins G L Roberts Collegiate and Vocational Institute
"This is an amazing program - providing a great deal of information for both students and teachers. I would highly recommend this program."
Lee Maybee North Park Secondary School
"What a relief to see all the new Ministry requirements for the Career Studies course's final research project in ONE place! Kudos to the creators of Career Cruising who obviously put a lot of research and know-how behind their seamless, user friendly, Canadian product!"
Helen Harrison Vincent Massey Secondary School
"I am extremely pleased with the quality and the breadth of the resources on your website and I'm looking forward to incorporating it into my Career Ed. courses this year. I have been investigating a number of career matching surveys and yours was the best by far, especially in terms of the integration of interests, education plans and current skills."
Lisa Douglas JH Bruns Collegiate
"Career Cruising is an interactive and comprehensive career exploration tool that is user friendly and responsive to the need of its clients. Our students, parents and staff value the site as a source of crucial information that helps students explore their options and connect successfully to postsecondary education and the world of work.
Thomas Labelle
"Working with Anthony Abbott, his colleagues and the Course Planner the past two years has been the best professional development I have experienced in twenty five years of teaching. Empowering students to make appropriate course selections, particularly around levels is crucial in secondary education. Students can not take courses they don't have the prerequisites for, team leaders are encouraged to set thresholds for English, Math and Science, including specific messages. This deliberate framework forces students to make better choices.
"The interface between our SMS and the Course Planner is seamless, our IT department enjoys working with Anthony and this web based software. When challenges arise, they are often resolved the same day as it is web based. This program empowers students, parents, teachers and administrators and promotes efficiency. I have never seen this much discussion around course selection and pathway planning before."
Bruce Downey, Student Success Leader, Near North DSB
"The Course Planner offers students and parents the ability to research and select courses effectively. Parents and students can now easily retrieve on-line information about student credit accumulation, mark history and course selections at anytime. The benefit for Administrators is that this powerful program instantly collects, tracks, and identifies course selections making valuable data instantly available to assist with staff planning and for purposes of scheduling.
"As a Guidance Counselor, I highly recommend and endorse this user-friendly product. The Course Planner offers flexibility and has the capability to meet the unique needs of any specialized program, student, or school. The program’s support team continues to develop and refine the Course Planner and as result, a remarkable planning tool is now available for our students."
Doug Plumb, Department Head of Guidance, W.F. Herman Secondary School
"As a Guidance Counsellor for the past 15 years I have seen a lot of changes to the ways in which we do our job but the electronic on-line course planner is by far one of the most innovative and revolutionary tools we’ve been given to date. Moving from a paper and pencil course selection process which required the countless checking and rechecking of option sheets by guidance personnel and Department heads and manual inputting of the courses into the computer to an internet based program that allows students to input their own course selections while not allowing (if set up properly) students to choose courses that they should not take or do not have the prerequisites for is nothing short of genius. I really can’t say enough good about the capability of this software. Students (and parents) can now be educated through the program to make wiser more appropriate course selections... The potential for messaging to students and parents over and above the basic course descriptions in a course calendar is limitless."
Bob Carlin, Guidance Counsellor, Resurrection Catholic Secondary School
"The Course Planner is a great product! It is an effective way to save time and energy, especially in the transfer of information to our Trillium database. The on-screen platform is very easy to understand. Students will find it to be a very fun way to pick courses. Having access to their course history will help students choose what is best for them.
"The Career Cruising support team is very quick to respond to questions and suggestions. I have personally enjoyed their advice and suggestions. I recommend this product to all schools who want to get ahead in the new technological world."
Martin Breault, Guidance Department, Ecole Secondaire Sainte-Marie
"It has been a pleasure working with the staff from Career Cruising with our on line course selections. The support they provide is prompt, helpful and effective whenever issues arise."
Sean Kritz, Guidance Department, St. Benedict C.S.S.
"Career Cruising is a real time saver after the initial set up. I can focus my time on counselling those students who really need one on one and not the 75% who can go on line with a single page of instructions and complete their option selections by themselves."
Noella Smyth, Guidance Department, Vincent Massey Secondary School
"One of the benefits of the course planner is the pre-validation of courses. Because Career Cruising has the students credit history in real-time, the student cannot select courses to which the student does not have the proper pre-requisites. The pre-requisite being either an earlier course or a mark threshold attached to the course that the student must have achieved in the pre-requisite course. A student not having the proper pre-requisites cannot select the course unless it’s over ridden by guidance or a Career Cruising Administrator within your board.
"Transferring Course Planner information back into Trillium is quite simple. The file received from Career Cruising is imported via the Career Cruising module in Interfaces and takes a matter of minutes. This saves an enormous amount of time as opposed to the scanning in of course selection sheets.
"Exporting the data via the Trillium Interfaces is also quick and easy. It allows you some choices that let you select an individual school or multiple schools, All Elementary Schools or All Secondary Schools. For a board our size it takes about 15 minutes to export all the required data."
Tim Watkins, Database Administrator, Near North DSB