Change is in the air at the Thunderbird Mall in Port Hardy.
The North Vancouver Island Aboriginal Training Society (NVIATS) will be taking over the North Island Employment Foundations Society’s (NIEFS) space in the Thunderbird Mall next month.
“We were approached by NIEFS, they’re going to be downsizing,” said NVIATS Manager Sherry Simms. “Since we opened this office, we said if the need ever arose for it, then we would expand what we do here currently. It just seemed like a really good fit, we are going to take over their office space because it is much larger than what we have here now.”
NVIATS has been operating in Port Hardy at the Thunderbird Mall for two years now, and they actually took over ownership of NIEF’s space back on April 1, but won’t officially be operating out of it until May 1.
While NVIATS will soon be moving into NIEFS’ space, NIEFS isn’t going anywhere. They will continue to rent two offices from NVIATS.
“Even if we weren’t approached by NIEFS, it was always our intention to expand our operations in the area,” said Barbara Clarkson, NVIATS Community Partnership Coordinator. “I’m thrilled we are expanding our services as it will help more of the North Island — it’s a real challenge to serve local communities like Kingcome, Gilford and Alert Bay — and by being here, it’s enabling us to serve them better.”
North Vancouver Island Aboriginal Training Society (NVIATS) is an Aboriginal training organization that operates under the Aboriginal Skills and Employment Training Strategy (ASETS), which is funded by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. The ASETS program provides funding to support the costs of programs, services and other activities undertaken to increase the participation of Aboriginal Peoples in the Canadian labour market.
The objectives of the NVIATS are:
* To provide training and employment opportunities for all our people within the region;
* To commit to the principle of equal access to status, non-status, on-reserve and off reserve aboriginal organizations and clients;
* To create training initiatives that lead directly to full time sustainable employment;
* To establish parity with respect to employment rates between the aboriginal labour force and the non-aboriginal labour force.
Other Services NVIATS offers:
* Career and Employment Couselling
* Job Search Strategies
* Labour Market Information
* Computer Lab (use for job search, resume writing, labour market research)
* Employer Services
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