Natasha Steinhauer is one of 15 students in the Youth Futures program at the P.A. Community Service Centre (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Job Training

New program targets youth employment

Nov 1, 2019 | 12:59 PM

On Tuesday afternoon, Natasha Steinhauer was one of half a dozen young people learning advanced Microsoft Word skills inside the computer lab at the P.A. Community Service Centre.

She hopes the training will help prepare her for a future job as a receptionist.

“I’m really good with organization, files, budgeting and computers. So, I think I would enjoy doing that,” she explained.

In the past, getting her high school diploma while raising her three small children, didn’t leave her much time to consider employment. But now, at 23 years old, she said her lack of work experience makes it difficult for her to find a job.

When the vocational counsellor she worked with told her she could be part of the inaugural class of a new program, she jumped at the opportunity.

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Launched in October, P.A. Community Service Center CEO Bill Powalinsky said Youth Futures builds on other initiatives currently running at the center but was designed in response to a particularly high demand for supports for young people.

The program features eight weeks of in-classroom instruction on topics including leadership skills, CPR, resume building and job finding, plus eight weeks of on-the-job training with wage subsidy.

“Regardless of what you might have happening in the background if you’ve got CPR, First Aid, WHIMIS, if you’ve got some computer skills, if you can show you’ve been able to stick it through for two months in a program, those things are all going to work for you to overcome barriers,” Powalinsky said.

The program, which is funded by the federal government, is open to anyone aged 17 to 30 who has not been employed or in school during the last four months.

Robert Harvery Misponas (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW staff)

For Robert Harvery Misponas, Youth Futures is helping him transition after recently moving to Prince Albert from Pinehouse Lake.

“The group activities stand out because we came in not one of us knowing each other and that just made us bond, now we’re friends, we help each other, we’re like a family,” he said.

Misponas is looking to get a job as a cashier or stocker during the job-finding portion of the program, but his long-term plan is to become a teacher.

The sense of comradery among the program’s 15 participants has also been noted by the course’s lead instructor Glen McMaster.

“It’s formed into a really nice team. They’re all supporting and encouraging each other,” he said.

McMaster added getting more youth in the Prince Albert workforce will have positive impacts of the community and the young people themselves.

“It’s going to give our youth a lot more confidence and self-esteem, learning that they’re not limited to doing certain things, they can move up the ladder or go on to different things if they wish,” he said.

Students in the computer lab at the P.A. Community Service Centre (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom