The Canim Lake Band (CLB) Community Career Fair saw a great turnout from band members, as well as others from the general public to explore the employment and education options featured at the free event held Feb. 3.
“We had about 80 people come through the door,” says CLB education administrator Michelle Archie.
There were 19 booths displaying information and talking about opportunities for jobs, post-secondary education and overall career exploration, she explains.
“[The booths included] a number of colleges and universities, we had employment centres and we had several employers.”
Booths offering information about education options included All Nations Group, Nicola Valley Institute of Technology, Thompson Rivers University and Okanagan College.
Kinder Morgan Canada, Marwest Utilities, Spectra Energy, FortisBC, West Fraser, Sitka Log Homes, Norboard and Interior Health were also there with booths featuring employment opportunities.
Employment centre booths included Cariboo Chilcotin Aboriginal Training and Education Centre; and Horton Ventures.
WorkBC was there with informative, hands-on options to try out on both topics, and CLB employment co-ordinator Lesley Paul also provided plenty of helpful information, Archie says.
“From our evaluations that came back, we had about 95 per cent say the resources were ‘very helpful’.”
She adds 98 per cent felt “welcome” (the remaining 2 per cent felt “somewhat welcome”), and most also found the date and time “very convenient”.
Thanks to funding by the First Nations Education Steering Committee, the education administrator says she was pleased to once again present the career fair after a few years without the means to host this event for local youth and others seeking a job, further education or a career change.
“I liked the mix,” says Archie. In “taking a look at our evaluation forms, I think next time – when I can apply for the funding for it again – we’ll do two separate days, with one day where it’s just strictly colleges and universities, and then dedicate the second day to the jobs fair.”
This way, their hope is to also feature booths with career and employment opportunities in other fields, such as banking, tourism and trades like heavy-duty mechanics, which were requested in these evaluations, she explains.
Archie says organizers would also like to invite more local businesses to be included next time.
Changes or not, the comments in the evaluations showed many of those who attended clearly enjoyed and benefited from the experience.
They noted experiences such as “got me interested in nursing jobs,” “I wanted to find a job outside – West Fraser was very interesting,” “all employers/representatives were informative and insightful” and “the layout was very open and welcoming – the vendors were easy to approach.”
Schools and employment opportunities featured were also rated by several others as “informative,” “very interesting” and “welcoming.”
Archie notes that overall, the quality of the information and atmosphere were demonstrated through plenty of other supportive comments, such as “keep up the good work everyone involved” and “great opportunities brought to our community are always awesome.”
