Netting Stars career fair hopes to catch Aboriginal job seekers

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Two hundred Aboriginal job-seekers crammed into Metro Hall in downtown Toronto on April 8 hoping to make a connection with one of the 20 employers at the Netting Stars: Aboriginal Career Fair that was organized by the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business and Miziwe Biik: Aboriginal Employment and Training.

There were an additional 10 booths supplied by various Toronto-based training and employment agencies, as well as 16 workshops geared towards giving Aboriginal job-seekers the tools to succeed in their employment search. The workshops dealt with resume writing, job search techniques, as well as listing career options in such fields as journalism, information technology, agricultural science and biotechnology.

"We tried to get a mix of big employers, a couple of Aboriginal businesses and anyone else who could help youth find jobs," said Lee Ahenakew, executive director of the Ontario chapter of the council.

The businesses that were recruiting included all five major banks, GE Canada, Canadian Airlines, Air Canada, several federal government departments, the Government of Ontario, the City of Toronto, as well as Aboriginal-owned companies like First Canadian Health, Working World New Media and Casino Rama.

Netting Stars was unique in terms of other career fairs, said Ahenakew, because it was aimed primarily at people looking for work.

"The career fairs that were planned were for high school and junior high school students. There wasn't actually any type of career fair for people looking for work," he said. "We tried to get as many large companies with as big a breadth of jobs as possible to get people thinking that a bank is not just a bank, it's got jobs in every area. And the same with General Electric; it doesn't just manufacture engines, it has insurance services and financial services, and is the third largest company in the world. We wanted to raise people's awareness to what kind of jobs large companies have to offer."

Ruben Roy, who is studying business computer systems at Seneca College, was very happy there was a career fair aimed at the Aboriginal job-seeker.

"This is very important to Aboriginal students because this gives them an opportunity to see exactly what the community has to offer," he said, adding that he would like to see this type of career fair happen more often.

Michele Baptiste, national manager of Aboriginal employment for Scotiabank, one of the major sponsors of the career fair, felt career fairs with a focus on Aboriginal people were absolutely necessary in recruiting Aboriginal job-seekers.

"To have some focus on the Aboriginal community specifically is a bigger drawing card - you get more people out to it, you get more community involvement and it shows a level of commitment from companies when they go out to the specific Aboriginal career fairs," she said.

She identified a lack of experience and education as limitations that Aboriginal people have to overcome in order to enter the mainstream job market.

"Aboriginal people haven't been aggressive job-seekers," she continued. "They need a more personal approach, and I think mainstream employers don't understand that because they look at that as a weakness and not a strength."

Scotiabank will follow up on the contacts that were made during the career fair, said Baptiste. "With the resumes that we got today, I'll go through them and deliver them to the appropriate areas . . . and then we'll look at them in more detail and see where they might fit into the bank . . . maybe do some interest interviews and talk with them a little bit further."