SIIT busses getting ready to roll
- EFN Staff | August 02, 2015
The Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies (SIIT) recently unveiled two newly wrapped Job Connections buses that will deliver career services to First Nations communities across the province.
The Government of Saskatchewan provided $325,000 towards the Mobile Job Connection Services program, which included the repurposing of two Job Connections buses that will offer services ranging from career assessments to active recruitment.
“Improving First Nations engagement in the workforce is a top priority," Saskatoon Sutherland MLA Paul Merriman, on behalf of Minister Responsible for Immigration, Jobs, Skills and Training Jeremy Harrison, said. "These Job Connections buses will provide more First Nations people with convenient access to the services they need to research career and training opportunities, develop a career action plan, connect with employers and ultimately gain rewarding employment.”
This year, the Mobile Job Connection Service project has also expanded its services and will be working closely with a number of employers to help them recruit First Nations people. In partnership with Saskatchewan Indian Training Assessment Group (SITAG), SIIT will begin delivering services in August.
“We have hit upwards of 70 communities in six months at times. We have hit every community we can with the bus except where we need to fly in. At Wollaston people thought we were a rock band and followed us around the community,” said Burton O’Soup Manager of Job Connections RV’s for SIIT. “The communities like the availability of having the internet and being able to access the outside world. This provides the opportunities and our coaches provide answers to their questions.”
The brightly decorated busses have several work stations in them as well as military grade satellite internet access.
“Thanks to support from the Government of Saskatchewan and the SITAG, we are able to offer these services directly in First Nations communities, giving participants an opportunity to explore career and training opportunities that they may not have accessed on their own, which can lead to careers that they may have otherwise never considered," SIIT President Riel Bellegarde said. "This program benefits all involved."
This initiative is a response to the recommendations from the Joint Task Force on First Nations and Métis Education and Employment to strengthen access to information, services and supports that help people transition to school, work, and new communities.
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