The City of North Battleford's recent appearance at a National Job Fair in Toronto has drawn active interest, according to Director of Business Development Denis Lavertu.
He told council Monday that 331 serious applicants submitted resumés to the City's booth at the job fair, Sept. 27-28 in Toronto.
According to Lavertu the 331 applicants were screened and were serious about moving to the area, with resumés not accepted from individuals not willing to relocate.
"We also did a lot of referrals to the website," Lavertu told councillors Monday night.
Attendance at the booth was estimated at over 2000 people, with the attendees exposed to what the City describes as the "positive messaging, employment opportunities and business potential" of North Battleford. There was relatively little cost to the City as a result of the trip, because there was funding in place from other agencies.
A breakdown provided on the resumés submitted indicates heavy interest in positions in the finance, accounting and medical fields.
A total of 40 accounting resumés were collected at the fair, as well as 34 for finance and 26 seeking medical positions. There were also 22 for customer service positions, 17 for project managers and 14 resumés seeking civil engineer jobs, among others.
Both Lavertu and Jennifer Niesink, human resource specialist, attended the job fair in Toronto. Niesink provided her report on the job fair to the Battlefords Chamber of Commerce at a board meeting Oct. 18.
Niesink noted newly-relocated Grit Industries Inc. were seeking quality control people as well as floor foremen with experience for positions with their company at the job fair, and was able to fill one of its key positions. Prairie North Health Region was also seeking out candidates.
Niesink told Chamber directors that there was a great turnout of professional people looking for work at the job fair. She noted Ontario was being hit hard by tough economic times, with many people looking for work.
Lavertu noted in his report unemployment there was as high as 12 per cent.
Monday, Lavertu recommended North Battleford increase its marketing effort aimed at Ontario at the next job fair in April 2012. He is also recommending a prominent Saskatchewan presence at the next job fair and continued support from Enterprise Saskatchewan for municipal and employer attendance. He also welcomed the involvement of the Chamber of Commerce.
In addition to the National Job Fair, North Battleford also got its message out to university career councillors at McMaster University, Western University, Brock University, Niagara College, the University of Toronto and Ryerson. A partnership is in development between McMaster and Prairie North Health Region regarding nursing grad placements.
Following the job fair, North Battleford held a recruitment open house at Battlefords Immigration Resource Centre Oct. 18. Lavertu reported more than14 employers attended and 123 resumes from the open house were selected, copied and taken for follow up by employers. He told council the efforts are still ongoing.
Councillors said they were happy with North Battleford's presence at the job fair and with the overall response they received.
"I think we did extremely well with the presentation that was done on our behalf," said Councillor Grace Lang, who praised the team who had handled the recruitment effort for North Battleford. "This is very encouraging."
