Students check out career options
Job fair coincides with skilled trades expo
Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Thursday, March 23, 2017
INUVIK
Part of the challenge of hosting a booth at East Three School's career fair last week was hooking students in long enough to make a good pitch.
Xavier Hansen, left, engages with community health rep Crystal Navratil at the career fair March 16. - Stewart Burnett/NNSL photo
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Jenny Costa, partnering and engagement officer with Parks Canada, had a unique approach.
At her booth, students took a quiz that outlined different areas they could work in within the Parks Canada organizaiton.
Then they would get a sportscard-style Parks Canada card with their photo, their ideal position within the organization, the tasks they would do in that role and the education needed to get there.
"(It's) so they can visualize themselves as employees," said Costa, who was managing a constant stream of students.
East Three Secondary School student Krish Sharma said that was his favourite booth.
"(The career fair) shows you all the opportunities and goals you can achieve up here in the North," said Sharma, who added he wants to be an accountant in the future.
Costa said it was important to get the message out that Parks Canada wants to hire locally. In the Western Arctic, she explained, the Inuvialuit gifted the national parks to Canada as part of the Inuvialuit Final Agreement.
"The hopes are that Inuvialuit beneficiaries will come and work for Parks Canada to protect the land and to share stories about their culture and how they're connected to the land," said Costa. "For us it's really important that kids and local people understand that we want more beneficiaries to come and works for Parks Canada."
Tourism Development Officer Anne Kokko joked that she was stuck between a drone demonstration and a virtual firefighting game, two of the most popular booths.
"It's really fun to talk to the kids about what they want to do after high school and find out ways that we might be able to assist them," she said.
Jonathon Michel, platoon chief with the Inuvik Fire Department, said upwards of 50 students came by the booth during the day.
"Everybody seems to be pretty interested in some of the tools that the fire department has," he said.
The main draw was a virtual fire extinguisher students used to put out fires on a screen.
Michel got into firefighting six years ago after his friend recommended he try it out.
"It was a very good suggestion on his part, because I love it," said Michel.
He said a lot of students grow up with media, such as cartoons, that promote firefighting and other first-responder careers.
"Continual learning is a pretty big thing we offer," said Michel about working in firefighting.
He wasn't sure he'd call the job financially lucrative, but he said it was rewarding thanks to the sense of well-being and contribution to community the work provides.
The career fair was hosted alongside the skilled trades expo and had 23 exhibitors.
