First in-person career expo in three years, an excellent experience for job seekers and students

The Career & Education Expo and Job Fair occurred on Thursday last week with just under 50 vendors
set up in the Fieldhouse at the Allan & Jean Millar. Rhonda Woods, Economic Development Officer for
the Town of Whitecourt, said the event highlights the availability within the region. “It’s a great
opportunity for employers to attend and have a booth and have a captive audience with over 1,000
youth from various school divisions across the region. It’s our future workforce learning about the career
opportunities in our own backyards, and is a great time for employers to connect. Many of our local
businesses are offering apprenticeship programs, and students have the opportunity to start their
careers early while they are attending high school. It’s a win-win!” She said students attended from the
Living Waters School Division, Northern Gateway School Division and the Pembina Hills School Division.
Not only could students speak to potential employers, but they could also speak to post-secondary
institutions and those offering trade opportunities in different sectors. There was even a truck driving
simulator on site.
One of the post-secondary groups on hand was the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT).
Julie Watton, Chair of the Electrical Engineering Technology Program at NAIT, had a simulation of how
lights are powered into homes. “Of course, there’s a lot more equipment involved, but I wanted to
showcase a little bit of a generator versus a transformer and add more voltage to get the lights to go
dim or bright or get the motor to run. It’s an easy concept for younger students to understand and
explain what we do in our program.”
She said speaking with students about the program always opens their eyes. “At first, they think it’s an
electrician program, but it’s not. So, explaining the gap that a technologist does between an engineer
and a tradesperson was very interesting, and it also opened up a lot of students for another opportunity
they didn’t know existed. You don’t have to go to university, and you don’t have to be a tradesman; you
can be that in-between person.”
After three virtual years, the 2023 expo was the first in-person event since 2019. Woods said getting
people back to chatting face-to-face was terrific. “It’s amazing to have people back in person and
walking amongst the booths. It was busy this morning, and it was nice to see that.”
She said the event also brought in people from outside the region. “We’ve had people from the
surrounding communities in the region visit but also had a few people from Calgary and one gentleman
from Grande Prairie.” Woods said a family from Calgary travelled up to take in the event and learn about
the opportunities in Whitecourt. “They said that since COVID, they wanted a community with a lot of the
programming and services they are used to in the city but in a smaller and tighter-knit package. It was a
great conversation,” she recounted.
She said getting to introduce visitors to the community and introduce them to businesses at the expo,
sparking immediate conversations about job opportunities, showed just one facet of the value of having
the expo. “When you don’t know where to go, and you don’t know where to start, these events kick that
off. People leave here thinking that they know their next step. If you’re looking for a career or maybe
even looking to change careers, this is where you can get started to find those opportunities. It allows
you to speak one-on-one with various company representatives in the same place.”

Presentations occurred at the back of the Fieldhouse throughout the day, allowing attendees to hear
more about different companies and programming opportunities. Other municipalities were also at the
event, sharing what’s possible as a career working under the umbrella of a municipal government. Along
with Whitecourt, Woodlands County, Barrhead, and Mayerthorpe had booths on display.
Mayerthorpe Mayor Janet Jabush said the event was “regionalism at its finest.” This year was the first
time they attended, and Jabush said they would return. “It gives us a chance to showcase our town,
which is always something we like to do. It’s all about community and making sure the job opportunities
in our communities are potentially filled by people who live there already.”
Booths on site included those from Canfor, Work Wild, Flint Corp, Fortis Alberta, Northern Lakes College,
Norquest College, Service Canada, Whitecourt Employment Services, Rupertsland Institute, Millar
Western Forest Products, Trican Well Services, Hendrickson Black LLP and West Fraser, to name a few.
Brittany Schuurman, Director of Marketing and Member Relations for Pembina West Co-op, said the
conversations had at their booth were fantastic. “We are very focused on the future growth and
sustainability of our Co-op and community. We’ve been working on being more proactive in succession
planning and making people aware of the various career opportunities within the Co-Op. Because we
are locally owned, we are invested in the community, but we are also part of a larger network of retail
cooperatives, so there are some really unique opportunities to grow a career from the ground up.”
She said it was interesting to speak to students and let them know that having a job at the Co-op after
school could turn into something bigger thanks to the neat options available for growth within the
company. “A few careers are struggling with finding up-and-coming talent, including pharmacies with
pharmacists and technicians,” explained Schuurman, adding that the Co-Op could help get people into a
career path like that.
The planning partners for the expo included the Town of Whitecourt, Woodlands County, Northern
Gateway Public Schools, Living Waters Catholic School, Community Futures Yellowhead East, CAREERS,
and the Government of Alberta – Alberta Jobs, Economy, and Trade. Two new partners this year
included the Town of Mayerthorpe and the Whitecourt & District Chamber of Commerce.
Information from the expo, including job descriptions for companies hiring, will be added to the
Whitecourt.ca website. Woods said anyone with questions about this year’s event or next year’s is
encouraged to email ecdev@whitecourt.ca. “We are collecting information on employers and
organizations that want to be part of it as we want to help grow it.”