A new seminar series will help St. Albert youth find employment.
The St. Albert Public Library will host two drop-in seminars aimed at helping those in the 16 to 24 age bracket tap into the job market. The first session, scheduled for Thursday, June 3, will focus on building and injecting life into a resume.
The library gets funding from the provincial and federal governments to provide resources for job seekers and has been offering free information sessions for adults for many years, said communications and fund development assistant Shelley Martell.
When approached about hosting new sessions for youth, library officials jumped at it, she said.
“We’re just really happy to have this opportunity. We hope that it does well here in St. Albert, she said.
Edmonton-based Youth Connections will provide the sessions.
A second session on job search techniques is scheduled for June 17. Both sessions run from 4 to 6 p.m.
One technique that will be covered is cold-calling — approaching a potential employer without having any previous contact, said seminar facilitator Carrie Reid.
“A lot of people don’t even realize that they can do that,” Reid said, noting that many job openings aren’t advertised. “By going through the phone book and choosing the companies you’d like to work for, there’s a good chance that you’re going to get in touch with a job that is not posted.”
The job search workshop will also explain how to find jobs through networking and social media, she said.
Alberta’s unemployment statistics for April pegged the youth unemployment rate at 15.2 per cent, nearly double the rate for the general population.
A study released last fall by the Community Foundations of Canada showed that the nation’s youth unemployment rate soared to a 30-year high during the economic recession. Youth unemployment rose from 10.7 per cent to 16.3 per cent between January 2008 and the summer of 2009, the report found. Among students looking for summer jobs last year, 19.2 per cent were unemployed.
It’s often a challenge for youth to find employment, agreed Brenda O’Neill, executive director of the St. Albert Youth Community Centre.
High school students often have trouble breaking into jobs because they lack experience while university students run into the same problem when they try for jobs in their chosen fields.
“For some of them it’s a very real fear. If they don’t have a good 10 to 12 weeks of employment, that has a great impact on whether or not they can attend university in the fall,” O’Neill said.
