Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a follow-up to my Member’s statement, I will have questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. As I indicated, and the Minister has indicated in the past that they are working to link with HR, has the Minister had any success in linking and contacting students with jobs that we potentially have in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We have made some changes to our SFA application guidelines, and having a student’s consent was a barrier over the past several years now to linking the students with the employers and working with HR. So now we have the opportunity. We have the students’ consent to move forward, working very closely with employers and also the Human Resources department. There are also a Facebook page that allows employers to advertise jobs and work with our department to create opportunities for our students.
Again, in partnership with Human Resources, there is information sharing and some employment throughout the Northwest Territories about employment opportunities. These are the changes we’ve made. We have heard from Members in the past and now we are moving forward on that. It is making progress within our application guidelines. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Can I clarify a question with the Minister? So, now we have that checkmark in the application, currently we have the ability to contact those students when we have job positions from HR? We can contact the students that these are the positions we currently have in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That’s correct. We didn’t have the checkmark prior to making those changes. Now we do have the students’ consent to allow them to explore opportunities in the Northwest Territories and creating opportunities for them through the employers. So, yes, we are making progress in that respect. We want to attract those students who return to the Northwest Territories, whether it’s an apprenticeship or other professional areas, and provide opportunities for them. That’s our overall priority. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Sounds great, Mr. Speaker. Has the department made those contacts with HR? Have we started to make the links of linking those students with potential positions in the future, linking up what the students are currently taking with what we have in our inventory of positions in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That’s exactly what is happening between our two departments. Also keep in mind that there is the employer aspect that we need to work with. We are dealing with upwards of 1,600 students and we need to identify who is graduating when, what kind of positions should be available to them in the Northwest Territories. Not just the GNWT, but other prospects and partnership opportunities within the Northwest Territories. There is also Skills for Success, improving employment success in the Northwest Territories. That’s another initiative on the go that involves integrated departments to work together to improve those successes. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m just wondering if the Minister can give me more information or indicate to me whether we are linked to all other departments in the NWT, Justice, HR, Housing, some of those positions where we know we need a certain skill set that we want, not just for highly educated people but also for tradespeople. Are we linked to all the sectors and all the private sectors? Can the private sector come to us and say we would like to put this job out to the students of the Northwest Territories? Are we able to take that information and pass it on to our students? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Since we got the consent from the students, now we have the dialogue with the interdepartmental discussion we are having, whether it’s the Housing Corporation, the housing maintainers or any other positions within departments and also outside the Government of the Northwest Territories, private agencies and public agencies as well. So those are discussions we are currently having since we got consent from the students. Yes, we are having the dialogue with the respective parties within the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Dolynny.
