Employers: What can Make Way for YOUth offer YOU?

Do you own or manage a business in the Estrie and find it difficult to recruit qualified professionals who speak English fluently (or who are bilingual)? Are you a small business owner with a limited budget for advertising who could use a little help getting the word out about your business and/or your employment opportunities? If so, the Make Way for YOUth project might just be right for you! For more information about how Make Way for YOUth can help you, read on or contact Michelle Amy Lepitre, Make Way for YOUth/Desjardins Migration Agent, by phone at 819-566-5717 (toll-free: 1-866-566-5717) or by e-mail: mwfy@townshippers.qc.ca.

The benefits of Townshippers’ Association’s Make Way for YOUth project that you most often hear about are those that affect the project’s participants. It is true that this project has great things to offer young professionals, but it is equally important to note that the potential benefits for the English-speaking community of the Estrie are also huge, particularly those the project can provide for local employers: FREE job postings and excellent visibility and networking opportunities to help local businesses find qualified employees, make new contacts and increase their visibility in the English-speaking community. How? Read on for more information. Accro des regions…a multi-faceted employment resource at your fingertips! As a local employer, you are invited to post job opportunities (aimed at young English-speakers with vocational, cegep or university-level training) on the Accro des regions website (www.accrodesregions.qc.ca) AND review potential candidates, all for FREE! Once posted on the Accro des regions website, your job offer will appear in the weekly Accro e-bulletin, which is delivered to over 90 youth who have already indicated an interest in settling in the Estrie, and is accessible to all of the other 40,000 Accro des regions subscribers FREE of charge. You are welcome to post your own job offers on the site whenever you wish (by creating your own user account) or, if you prefer, you can send your postings directly to the Make Way for YOUth / Desjardins Migration Agent who can post them for you. If you choose to create your own user account, however, you will also be able to browse a bank of interesting (and interested!), qualified job candidates… for free! Whenever a candidate subscribes to the Accro des regions e-bulletin, he/she also creates a profile (which includes information about his/her skills, training and qualifications) which you, as an employer, can browse. No name or contact information is included in the profiles, but if you find one that interests you, all you have to do is contact the Make Way for YOUth / Desjardins Migration Agent and she can help you make the first contact with the candidate. Another online resource available to employers through Townshippers’ Association is the Topportunity website. Here, the migration agent can post job opportunities that don’t quite fit the criteria for Make Way for YOUth (for example: jobs based in Sherbrooke and jobs that don’t require post-secondary training). With approximately 800-1000 unique visitors per month, the topportunity website (www.topportunity.ca) is a one-stop resource for opportunities in the Eastern Townships. Job postings on this website are also free of charge. Visibility and Networking Opportunities During the 2009-2010 Exploratory Activities, the Make Way for YOUth/Desjardins Migration Agent will take a number of soon-to-be (or recent) graduates around the Estrie, showing them the sights and helping to introduce them to the region. During each of these activities, candidates will participate in networking activities which will allow them to meet politicians, artists and artisans, business people, volunteers, and more. Participating in these activities can be profitable for your business or organization because it will allow you to meet potential new employees and customers at little or no cost to you. Other benefits include: increasing your visibility in the community, publicity for your business via a donation (a gift for the participants or a cash donation to help support the activities) and great networking opportunities, since you will meet not only the Make Way for YOUth participants, but also a variety of other people who might not already know about you and/or your work. The best part: by using these services and supporting Make Way for YOUth, YOU are helping to create a truly dynamic, social environment in the Eastern Townships that will be sure to attract young professionals and their families to the region.