First Annual MFNERC Career Fair

The Resource Centre hosted its first Career Fair on March 23, 2022. A virtual platform ensured a great turnout from schools across Manitoba and provided an opportunity to host 36 career booths. The day opened in a good way with political leaders and organization directors offering prayers and words of encouragement. The students participated in interactive booth visits, contests, and career presentations that ran all day.

Brett Banfield, Career Facilitator, originally had the idea for a career fair and made it happen. “Career fairs have the possibility of generating dreams!” he said. “This event can create an opportunity for students to not only dream, but start talking about their future possible career, and hopefully start planning for it too.”

The Resource Centre gathered together post-secondary institutions, trades training programs, government and public sectors, media, workers from First Nations, and more to share information and answer questions from youth in attendance. All students need to learn about different career options, regardless of whether they live in urban or rural areas. Events such as this allow students and attendees to jump in a virtual booth and hear a live presentation or have live chats with up to 36 exhibitors. Students often do not know what career to choose, or sometimes where to start, and a career fair is a perfect place to start the process of one’s career path and/or solidify a career choice.

Students and attendees listened to an inspiring keynote address from Indigenous Life Coach, Jessica Dumas. Jessica is a professional speaking coach and host of The Confidence and Communication Podcast. She has been recognized for her professional expertise as a recipient of the Manitoba 150 Women Trailblazer Award from the Nellie McClung Foundation for 2021, Ace Burpee’s Most Fascinating Manitobans for 2019, the 2017 Future Leaders of Manitoba, and the CBC’s Top 40 Manitobans under 40 for 2015. She has a 2017 TEDx talk called “The Journey to a Woman’s Identity.” Jessica shared her journey and her knowledge about emotional intelligence and capacity for personal development and growth. She ensured all students that they can achieve their dreams and goals by focusing on positivity and healthy choices.

Banfield says he is already looking forward and planning next year’s virtual career fair. . “In a 2019 Resource Centre study, it was concluded that 47 per cent of our students wanted a job in the trades. Therefore, I am looking forward to providing these students, and others, with a VR experience of select trade jobs. Also, these VR goggles will be equipped with a virtual tour of select Manitoba post-secondary institutions. I am very much looking forward to the opportunity of visiting a lot of our schools, connecting with students in person, and giving them other mediums to explore various careers and post-secondary life, such as VR goggles, the Essential Skills Bundle, Xello (K–12), trades and post-secondary video series, and a lot of updated First Nations curriculum content in careers. In planning for next year’s virtual career fair, I would change a few things to encourage more student participation and interaction..”

The Resource Centre thanks all 328 attendees as well as the booth exhibitors for making the Resource Centre’s first Career Fair a success. Thank you to everyone who donated gifts and prizes, ensuring all students walked away with something from this event. A special thank you

to Dubyts Communications for successfully managing the Career Fair’s digital platform. Miigwech!

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