Internship program prepares youth for career jobs

With the inspiring success of its first year, the new and innovative Aboriginal Internship Program in B.C. is now able to recruit an additional 10 students to the original15 this year. The 15 interns were chosen from approximately 80 Aboriginal youth who applied and won the internship after a rigorous recruiting process, said Sasha Hobbs, the program manager of the Aboriginal Internship Program.
"We think that due to its success in the first year, the provincial government is definitely moving forward and expanding the program this year. It's been a successful model of engaging with Aboriginal youth and providing them with just an unparalleled professional and personal experience. We would love to see this as something that other provinces could take a look at as well," stated Hobbs.
The goals of the provincial program are to encourage Aboriginal youth to consider the B.C. Public Service or Aboriginal organizations as a place to pursue a meaningful career, help Indigenous youth develop their leadership skills, provide opportunities for Aboriginal youth to contribute and improve relationships between First Nations communities/organizations and the provincial government as well as help closing the social and economic gaps that exist between Aboriginal people and other British Columbians.
The program starts with a week of orientation, followed by a nine-month placement in a variety of the B.C.'s public service ministries, from the Ministry of Children and Family Development to the Ministry of Environment. The interns then spend their last three months with an Aboriginal organization related to their ministry placement, bringing the length of the program to one year.
Some of the interns expressed they were deeply affected by the program and expressed that it gave them direction and inspiration for their future.
"To see so many young people come together people of a like mind motivated and proactive, really affected me in a good way on a professional level because I had no major direction before," said Carrie Lynn Victor, who was placed in the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands. "This is a great kick-start to a career. On a personal level it's great learning, I learned to sit in on a discussion and have a healthy debate. It is something I think I will carry with me for a long time rather than being afraid to express my opinion."
Elaine Alec who was placed with the Ministry of Childhood Development received an honour of being nominated for the position of Chief of Penticton Indian Band.
"Our overall goal was to improve relationships between Aboriginal people and communities and government, so I had two main projects that I worked on, one was called honouring the journey of our youth, for children who were transitioning out of care from the ministry."
Alec also created a workshop called learning your rights through play, and learning your rights through music.
"We organized workshops for children in care from ages of six to 18 and taught them what their rights were in care and their rights based on the U.N. declaration on the right of the child. So, we traveled throughout the region and just did a lot of youth engagement. We talked to a lot of social workers about cultural values and how to meaningfully engage the youth that they were working with and how to be culturally sensitive to the different protocols that we have in different areas so if they needed to approach an Elder we taught them how they would do that and who they would go through," said Alec.
Alec said she has encouraged other Aboriginal youth to complete the program. She believes her personal experience in the program is really in alignment with her passion for empowering Aboriginal youth, and added fuel to her fire
"My goals stay consistent through anything I do, any position where I can work to help strengthen and empower Aboriginal people. I see myself in a position where I am always helping create awareness, inspiring and motivating young people to go for their dreams. I am not sure what that means for me, whether it's a leadership role like chief and council or just an advocate for children and youth," said Alec. "I think it changed my life. I think it changed the direction of my life. There are so many Aboriginal youth out there that need that chance- to get that exposure, and need the opportunity to show what they can do, what they can achieve. I think this program does that successfully. All of us have walked away standing tall, being more confident of who we are. I would love to see many of our Aboriginal youth get involved in programs like that because it helps empower our youth and it helps shape the leadership that is coming up."
Alec said the most that she gained from the program is confidence in herself, and pride of who she is as an Aboriginal person.
"I was able to work with 14 other youth who are so culturally grounded, knowing who they are, speaking their language, knowing their roots, and still being educated and being able to take leadership roles. I became so proud of who I was and had so much hope for the future of our leadership because I knew that we had so many talented and educated Aboriginal youth out there who are willing to take those leadership roles," said Alec. "Sometimes we just need to stop and take the time to teach somebody a little bit about who we are, to develop that respect and understanding from each other. Once you get through that you will find its easier to work with people and I think that is what I will take away the most. For me, I have to be able to have the patience to be able to stop and to understand that not everybody knows who I am or where I came from."
The applicants who were not accepted are encouraged to reapply next year.