SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
There's a large untapped resource in the North that's got people talking. It's not natural gas, gold or diamonds. According to educators, business leaders and government officials - it's people.
Gabrielle Scrimshaw, president and co-founder of the Aboriginal Professionals Association of Canada, delivers the keynote speech at the Skills4Success Symposium at the Explorer Hotel. - Karen K. Ho/NNSL photo |
"We have tremendous capacity and so much of that is unrecognized by the labour force," declared Erin Freeland Ballentyne, director of the Dechinta Center for Research and Learning. "The problem is often once they show up they don't get the support they need."
Recognizing the full potential and abilities available in the aboriginal population, especially the youth under the age of 18, as well as providing sufficient support, was the message being stressed at the Skills4Success Symposium held at the Explorer Hotel.
Over two and a half days, educators, business leaders and government officials spoke about growing needs in the labour market, the best approaches for reducing existing skill gaps among the aboriginal population in NWT and ensuring long-term career success through the best retention methods.
Keynote speaker Gabrielle Scrimshaw said Yellowknife businesses can use and better retain existing aboriginal employees through low or no-cost, high-dividend initiatives such as networking nights or professional development days.
"That's a really simple win," said the president and co-founder of the aboriginal Professional Association of Canada.
Businesses who actively hire and promote aboriginal staff also set them up to be role models that encourage a pipeline of talent involved post-secondary education and other organizations.
"People from the community will look up to them and say 'Maybe I can do that too,'" Scrimshaw said.
Ballentyne said talking directly to people who want to be employed and getting their active input on the jobs they actually want is a good idea.
"What are the barriers, what are the skills you already have, how can we mobilize them and connect them to opportunities," said the Yellowknife resident. Often a lack of support is cited as a major reason for why so many don't reach the completion stage. "Here if people go to post-secondary down south, 90 per cent drop out before the end of the first semester," Ballentyne said.
Recognizing knowledge and abilities in things like languages and history can help create opportunities in tourism businesses as well as bridge some of the physical and cultural barriers to greater education. Ballentyne cited the example of a video game being made on reserve, with the traditional voices and stories of elders, being sold in California.
"We just need to switch it and say, We have the capacity, let's invest in that capacity so we can blow up and create new markets, new economies and a new future," she said.
