Career Fair Opens Doors to Future Careers for Indigenous Students

Photo of: FNUniv Career Fair
Photo by: Danielle Dufour

 

First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv) hosted a career fair today, giving students the opportunity to connect with representatives from 23 organizations and explore potential career paths.

“One thing we tried to do is find employers that are relevant to each of our faculties so each of the careers and the subjects that our students are learning,” said Joshua Lavalley, a work integrated learning coordinator with the Career Centre at FNUniv. “Everything we are doing is kind of building momentum and leading our students toward fulfilling careers.”

Lavalley said the Career Centre asks employers what their goals are as far as Indigenous recruitment and retention, as students want to know they are going to be applying for jobs in welcoming workplaces.

To help draw more students to the event, the team that organized the event along with Tally Dufour, Manager of the Career Centre, came up with the idea to bring a “food twist” to the career fair.

“Each booth has something different,” said Dufour. “We have a finger licking good booth, a pizza booth. We have Metis entrepreneurs, Indulge Kitchen. We’ve got First nation entrepreneurs, Tara Whitecap with her Bannock, so we’re really happy with the turnout.”

“Our participation is based on the desire to have the most representative workforce we possibly can so that our school division looks like the students that are attending it,” said David Gillingham with the Regina Public Schools. “We’re here to promote Regina Public in the 105 different roles that we have within the school division and hoping to recruit some strong candidates from the career fair.”

Regina Public Schools offers opportunities from a variety of careers such as administrators, trades, business services, payroll, facilities management, educational support, speech language therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists and more.

“Indigenous representation is really important to us,” said Gillingham. “It’s a priority focus for our system. We want to see staff, students, sort of a cohesive demographic mix that represents Regina, in all roles, not just school facing roles.”

Peggy Schafer is a human resource officer with Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority (SIGA) said, “We come every year. It’s a great event to attend. We’re here to entice some First Nations (students) to apply at our casinos.”

Schafer said SIGA offers a summer student program throughout their seven casinos across Saskatchewan, and with a central office located in Saskatoon.

Nicole Custer, a student at FNUniv working towards a Bachelor of Arts and Science degree, attended the career fair.

“It’s awesome. I love it,” said Custer. “It’s opening up so many doors for me.”

Although Custer has yet to decide on a career path and is not expected to graduate until 2029, she is grateful that her education will open the door to a variety of career opportunities.

“It’s giving me inspiration, positivity,” said Custer. “I can go into a lot and there’s just so many opportunities and I’m so happy that I chose to come.”