For those job seekers who didn’t make it down to Courtenay last week to the massive regional job fair hosted by Black Press at the Florence Fliberg Centre, there are still two more upcoming major opportunities to find work.
The first of these is coming up next Thursday, Feb. 23, when Island Health takes over the gymnasium of Robron Centre.
The Island Health Career Fair will have booths featuring registered nurses, psychiatric nurses, doctors, social workers, audiologists, lab technicians, dieticians and more for job seekers to speak with about their roles in the organization and the health system.
The event will focus on Aboriginal students and communities, as one of Island Health’s goals is “to create a workforce that reflects the Aboriginal communities we serve,” according to Dr. Brendan Carr, Island Health’s president and CEO.
“Diversity enhances our ability to deliver culturally-safe services and improves the health status of Aboriginal people by creating health settings where people feel respected.”
As such, the first two hours of the fair, from 1 to 3 p.m. will be open to Aboriginal students and families, with Aboriginal Employment Team members on hand to lead various activities.
At 3 p.m. the event opens to the public and runs until 5 p.m.
The fair will also feature a number of booths from various post-secondary institutions around the province, as well as other health care organizations such as the First Nations Health Authority, Life Labs, Communitas Supportive Care Society, Ocean Grove Midwifery, Campbell River and District Association for Community Living and Kwakiutl District Health.
Then, next month, the North Island Employment Foundations Society (NIEFS) will be hosting the annual hiring fair for April Point and Painter’s Lodge resorts, who, between them, employ more than 225 people in our region.
“We’re super excited to again be doing the big April Point and Painter’s Lodge hiring kickoff on March 31,” says Shannon Baikie of NIEFS.
“We generally get over 100 people come through for that,” Baikie continues. “This is their first stop for their season, so they start here, they do on the spot interviews with probably four different department managers, and then they do the follow-up interviews after the fact on-site.”
The pair of local resorts was put up for sale last year by Oak Bay Marine Group and has been purchased by North Coast Resorts, which will operate the facilities going forward.
Baikie says the news is good for those looking for jobs in the region, as we have been seeing growth in the jobs figures over the last year or so.
NIEFS is happy to have people in to talk about how best to approach their job search, work on their resumes or discuss employment options in the region with an employment professional, Baikie says.