Career Connections launching pre-employment program

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This article was published 06/04/2022 (1436 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Brandon employment agency is creating a pre-employment program after receiving $214,500 from a provincial initiative to create Employment and Income Assistance projects.

On Tuesday, Families Minister Rochelle Squires announced $2.65 million in total funding for EIA programming in an effort to help single parents rejoin the workforce.

“Our goal in a transformation of the Employment and Income Assistance program is to ensure that every client can be guided on a clear path toward greater independence and more fulfilling lives,” Squires said in a Winnipeg Free Press report.

Of the $2.65 million, $1.3 million is going toward a two-year extension for the Single Parent Employment program at Winnipeg-based organization Opportunities for Employment.

Another $850,000 is going to Winnipeg-based social services organization Taking Charge! to provide personal development and pre-employment readiness programming. The remaining $500,000 is going to two programs in Thompson and one in Brandon.

The Brandon beneficiary of some of those funds is Career Connections.

Executive director Tracy Williams told the Sun on Wednesday her organization already operates employment programs for adults with disabilities, but the province approached her to start a pre-employment program for the general population receiving EIA.

The program will help participants develop resumes as well as practical and interview skills with hands-on learning relevant to various job sectors.

“In food processing, for example, first there are levels one to six in terms of difficulty,” Williams said. “The first one, they’ll learn how to wrap a cheeseburger … the last [level], they learn how to make a cheesecake.”

There will also be lessons relating to jobs like woodworking and information technology.

Ultimately, the goal is to connect participants with employers for work placements once they’ve completed their lessons.

“My goal is to find lots of people work, give them the skills they need to find the job and keep the job, and we’ll do follow-ups with them as well.”

The initial proposal, according to Williams, was that Career Connections would accommodate 65 people in the program this year. However, she said she typically surpasses the outcomes she sets with the province and is hoping she could help up to 100 people in 2022.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Williams said a lot of people on EIA ended up qualifying for the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit. Now that CERB has been phased out, many of those people are back on EIA.

She hopes the program will help people find work and reduce the amount of EIA the province has to pay out.

After wanting to run a program like this for 15 years, Williams is excited to “help individuals in our community prosper and find their self-worth.”

If all goes well, the program will be up and running by May 1.

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