Thousands of people went online exploring for Prince George employment at the first Initiatives Prince George internet job fair.
According to IPG's data tracking system, almost 2,000 people visited the web portal created for the exercise, and they clicked about 12,800 times on the pages posted by prospective Prince George employers.
"We are very pleased with the initial participation results and with feedback from local employers who had a virtual booth in the Prince George Online Job Fair," said Melissa Barcellos, economic development officer for IPG. "We won't have detailed results about the number of people who logged in, chatted with employers and submitted applications for several days, but we are optimistic that employers have connected with qualified candidates."
The tracking research showed that of the job-seeking participants, 40 per cent were from Vancouver, 32 per cent were from other communities in Metro Vancouver and 28 per cent were from Prince George. Either scenario is fine with IPG officials as it would mean either a new person coming to the community or retaining a resident, both of which works towards IPG's goal of a municipal population of 100,000.
"The Prince George Online Job Fair enabled local employers to connect with potential employees living in Metro Vancouver without the travel costs associated with participating in traditional job fairs," said IPG's CEO Heather Oland. "While promotion of the job fair was targeted at new Canadians living in Metro Vancouver who are underemployed or unemployed, local residents were also welcome to participate."
A special emphasis was placed on new Canadians. To that end, IPG obtained a $60,200 grant through the Employer Innovation Fund that is overseen by Immigrant Employment Council of B.C. to help cover the costs of the Online Job Fair. This funding is made possible through the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia. IPG was one of 11 organizations that received such funding to develop ways of addressing immigrant talent hiring and retention challenges faced by B.C. employers.
Based on the high numbers for this first online job fair attempt, a second one is now under development, scheduled for late 2013. Businesses interested in participating can contact Barcellos at 250.564.0282 or [email protected] for more information.
