Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Inuvik (July 26/02) - Finding summer help is sometimes as difficult as finding that first summer job, but a project in Inuvik might make things easier for summer students and employers.

Michelle Cardwell is enjoying her summer as the first Student Employment Officer in Inuvik. - Terry Halifax/NNSL photo

Michelle Cardwell is the student employment officer at the Human Resources office in Inuvik. She's working to match employers looking for summer help with students looking for summer work.

Cardwell was born in Whitehorse but moved to Inuvik in 1998 and graduated the next year.

After working for three years, she attended Grant McEwan college in Edmonton for upgrading and returned back to Inuvik.

The new job is a new thing for Inuvik, but Cardwell thinks the idea is catching on.

"It's been going pretty good," Cardwell said. "It's been a slow start, but it will be better next year."

One of her first tasks was to start a campaign to raise awareness of the project, by putting up posters around town and talking with the town and aboriginal groups about the service.

"I had to introduce the program to employers to see if they have an interest in hiring summer students, and I also did a presentation at the high school," she said.

Employers will call the office and Cardwell takes the job orders and posts them on the job board.

She invites students to bring in resumes and fill out a registration form and she tries to match the jobs with the students.

"I have about 46 resumes on file," Cardwell said.

Another part of her duties is helping students build job skills, having successful interviews and follows up with visits after the student has been hired.

"I really like it," she said. "It's nice helping students find jobs."

Office manager Diana Martin is impressed the way Cardwell and the new position are working in an area that needed some attention in Inuvik.

No place to go

"It was a need that was expressed locally for sometime now, that local students and youth in general didn't have a place to go to help them in job searches," Martin said. "It was the old vicious cycle of not being able to get experience because you couldn't get a job."

"If nobody gives you a chance, how do you get the experience?"

Martin said the pilot project is joint effort with the municipal and territorial governments, along with the aboriginal groups and local business owners.

The program is funded and supported by the federal government, the GNWT, the Inuvuialuit and the Gwich'in.

"That support is not always financial, but with helping with other resources, like contacts, referrals and advertising," she said.

The key, she said, is starting slowly, but building to a much larger service offering workshops in resume and cover letter writing, work ethics and expectations.

"We're hoping that in three years, the student employment office will be a melting pot for students to gain all types of job skills," she said.