Pelican Falls First Nations High School to conduct Annual Career Fair online
Reeti Meenakshi Rohilla - Staff Writer
Pelican Falls First Nations High School (PFFNHS) is preparing to conduct its 18th Annual Career Fair online this year, encouraging businesses and organizations to participate.
Pelican Falls First Nations High School’s Guidance Counselor, Shawn Hordy shared, “The Career Fair is a largely anticipated event for our students and I would still like to provide them with some sort of platform to experience careers and opportunities that help inspire their futures and fuel their ambitions to continue school.”
Hordy shared that he is planning to have a digital slideshow presentation available for students on February 11th, which is when the Career Fair is normally conducted. He added that students would have a week to navigate through the presentation, complete their digital passport and submit them for prizes, which will be drawn on February 19.
Hordy mentioned, “A year ago, we had a gymnasium packed with over 300 students and 55 plus various organizations, now 2021 we have no students, no presenters and no event. It would have been easy to use COVID as an excuse to not have a career fair but the motivation from staff, students and the organizations that look forward to it, was all I needed to try and make something happen.”
PFFNHS students are currently at home participating in remote learning.
Hordy shared that a live, online venue would have been a great platform. However, the challenges the students in their northern communities face with poor internet connectivity and bandwidth wouldn’t make it effective. The event will consist of a Google Slides presentation put together with information regarding the various organizations taking part.
Hordy mentioned, “The importance behind the career fair for our students is much more than the giveaways and the day out of class, but for the students to become aware of opportunities for employment that they may not have known about! Also hopefully sparking some interest in program choices for post secondary education. So many youth when they reach grade 12 have no idea what they wish to do once they graduate. It is a very stressful time and throw COVID in the mix, the stress becomes amplified by 100.”
Hordy added that this event is vital to provide students with resources and knowledge of the variety of job opportunities that lie ahead of them. “You never know what might create a spark or provide the motivation to pursue a career and we hope that we can inspire some of our students. The one benefit of doing it this way is that we should be able to reach more students and even those who are no longer students but looking for career opportunities or ideas.”
Any business or organization that would like to participate can share informative slides with Hordy, at shordy@nnec.on.ca, by February 4th. Further details for the preparation of the slides can be accessed at https://bit.ly/2MEwjXi. An example of the type of slide Hordy is looking for can be viewed at https://bit.ly/3owEHVX.
Hordy concluded, “My fingers are crossed that we get the same participation from both organizations and students, and in a few weeks time, I can report back on yet another successful Career Fair!”
