Yellowknife (May 26/06) - Students looking for jobs and employers looking to hire them now have a service centre to help them find each other.

Both can meet with little fuss on the Yellowknife Service Canada Centre for Youth's online job bank.

Laura MacKinnon is a summer employment officer at the Yellowknife Service Canada Centre for Youth. The centre provides job information and resume help for students looking for summer work. -

"We have about 22 jobs listed on our website," said summer employment officer Laura MacKinnon.

But that's not all the centre offers.

Formerly known as the Hire-A-Student program, the centre helps students create resumes, cover letters, teaches interview techniques, and provides a place for students to view job postings from community employers.

These services are of utmost importance to students returning home from school.

"It's tough. There's heavy competition for x-amount of jobs," said University of Victoria economics student Isaac Ayiku, 25.

Ayiku is hoping that he can find a job using the centre like he did last year, when he worked for the GNWT as a summer student.

He said having a job centre here in Yellowknife is convenient, as he can access all the services he needs in one place.

The service is tailored to students between 15 and 30. Employment officers like MacKinnon canvas city employers of all types to find potential openings for the students who use the job bank.

Anything from full-time or part-time work, or even odd jobs and short-term contracts can be posted in the centre or online.

So far, MacKinnon said she has had 55 students come into her new office on the second floor of the Greenstone Building since the centre opened May 3.

She's hoping more employers will contact her about jobs, because she expects around 400 people to use the services provided by the time the office closes on Aug. 18.

"We're trying to get the word out," she said.

MacKinnon knows how important services like this are, as she found her job on a federal job site.

Computers, a photocopier and a fax machine are available for students looking to get their resumes out to Yellowknife businesses.

The program has been available in Yellowknife since the mid-1990s and for 35 years nation-wide.

The Service Canada Centre for Youth is sponsored by Service Canada, a branch of the government that helps people access career information in Canada.

The centre also provides workshops on job safety. Information sessions are in the beginning stages of planning, said MacKinnon.