The Jasper Employment and Education Centre (JEEC) was one of the recent recipients of a grant from the Government of Alberta’s Small Community Opportunity Program (SCOP).
The support (in the form of a financial boost of $80,380) will help the non-profit to organize more job fairs and collaborate with workforce stakeholders across Alberta to address labour shortages in Jasper.
“It’s an exploration grant to figure out what kind of recruitment and retention strategies will work in Jasper,” said Executive Director Heidi Veluw.
One look at the Jasper Job Board, the centre’s constantly updating rotation of job postings, shows a robust catalogue of employment available in kitchens, hotels, guiding operations and other local businesses.
There is much going on behind the scenes, however. The big shift is to try to balance out our tourist economy that comes and goes with the weather and the seasons.
“One of the challenges here at Jasper is seasonal employment,” Veluw said.
Unfortunately, some things are beyond anyone’s control and occasionally, there might not even be enough work to go around.
This past winter was especially troublesome. Business was slow in November and December because the snow didn’t really come until closer to the end of ski season. Temporary foreign workers helped fill in the gaps.
“This was my first year here, but it was worse than ever,” Veluw said.
“There wasn't enough work. How can we hire more seasonally? Because that's really what’s needed in Jasper. We’re exploring that.”
“When you have a whole bunch of people in town, and they don't know where else to go in Alberta, and they don't have money, and they can't eat, that's not a good thing,” she added.
This is summer, so virtually everyone who can work is already employed for the summer. The job board still has openings and new businesses are still coming online to establish further demands for workers, too.
The tide is starting to shift, however. Hotels are retaining workers for longer periods. More people are coming to town from across the province and the country to work for seasonal employment, which also works well for local employers. Last winter proved that point.
JEEC’s recent labour market study helped them start to look at different solutions, even enhancing recruitment in post-secondary institutions by spreading the message that Jasper is the place for employment.
This grant will explore all of those issues.
“This really is about exploring some different options in Jasper about how we could recruit, what works and building some relationships with programs that have placements and internships so that people know about Jasper,” Veluw said.
The one thing that Jasper really has going for it is that people do not have any trouble getting full-time hours during the summer, unlike Edmonton or other larger cities.
JEEC has already made many inroads with employers, establishing new relationships to look at better recruitment strategies.
The centre has recently hosted a few job fairs for hospitality businesses and restaurants. They have helped people find jobs and employers find workers for the summer. Those employers have also banked resumes for future openings. Savvy jobseekers use these events to job shop, increasing their likelihood of finding satisfying long-term employment.
JEEC is looking forward to working on recruitment from some of the hospitality centres that are doing training. That includes relationships with NAIT, Norquest College, Bow Valley College, and Northwestern Polytechnic (formerly Grande Prairie Regional College) where students have practicums that offer on the job training. The deadline for people to apply for this fall’s first intake at Hinton’s new Centre for Hospitality Studies and Research is Aug. 1.
