Yellowknife (Feb 21/03) - Every year the Department of Education and individual boards have the challenge of filling 100 vacant teacher positions.

"Ideally we'd like to fill them through Aurora College, but we can't. The numbers are just not there," said Sue Glowach, director of communications for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment director of communications.

According to its registrar's office, Aurora College only admits 15 teachers a year.

That means recruitment drives fly South to encourage teachers to head North.

This year ECE, with the help of representatives from various Northern school districts, including the two Yellowknife boards, took the recruitment drive nationwide.

"It went very well. We had a successful drive," said Glowach.

"We went out with a very representative and attractive display of the area."

The trick to attracting Northern applicants is appealing to a certain personality type, said Glowach.

"We want to appeal to people that have a sense of adventure and want to try something new," she said.

The collected resumes are then sent to the various districts to begin the hiring process.

Dr. Judith Knapp, superintendent of Yellowknife Education District No. 1, said her board has garnered good potential candidates from the initiative.

"On our portion of the NWT recruitment drive in Edmonton and Calgary, we collected approximately 115 resumes," she said.

The district is also receiving resumes via e-mail, fax and mail on a daily basis from drives in other parts of the country.

Knapp said over 200 e-mails have been received to date.

The results have been positive for Yellowknife Catholic Schools as well.

Marlene Hnatiw, executive assistant to superintendent Kern Von Hagen, said an abundance of resumes have been received, including 102 from British Columbia alone.

Although the drive was viewed as a success, Glowach said, there are a lot of people who take one look at the information and say the North is not for them.

But that's alright, she said. "We're looking for the best and the brightest and we're looking for people that fit our lifestyles."