Aboriginal pre-employment grads celebrated
- EFN Staff | May 20, 2014
The City, in partnership with the Government of Canada, the Government of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon Tribal Council and the Gabriel Dumont Institute and Radius Community Centre, is pleased to congratulate the first graduating class of its pre-employment program, Trails to Success.
"We want to connect our Aboriginal citizens with Saskatoon's growing economy," says Gilles Dorval, Director of Aboriginal Relations. "We are doing this through skills training and hands-on work experiences with the City of Saskatoon, the Meewasin Valley Authority and local businesses."
A total of 18 men and women graduated from Trails to Success. Fifteen have found immediate employment, while three are taking further training.
The main objectives of the Trails to Success program are:
- to develop participants' workplace Essential Skills through participation in: group-based personal management, teamwork skill building workshops, short-term certificate trainings, and additional schooling;
- to develop an individualized participant career action plan that includes goal development for employment and education;
- to job coach and liaise with the workplace to support participants in work experience to further promote their connection to a job;
- to demonstrate the value of community partners working together to build better employment opportunities for Aboriginal graduates.
"As proof of the program's 85 per cent success rate, the City has offered jobs to four Trails to Success graduates," Dorval says. "We're confident this will be the first step in their journey towards a better quality of life for the grads and their families."