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| PROVIDE JOB HUNTING BASICS |
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BY MARY TERESA BITTI |
Denis Dubeau’s two-year employment contract ended in October, 2005, and three months on, he had no prospects despite having sent out 300 resumés, constantly scanning online job boards and going on a few fruitless interviews.
At 56, he had built up an impressive resumé in supply chain management and had not had to look for a job since 1976 when he started his career.
“I was in a desperate situation,” Mr. Dubeau says. And then he spotted a two-by-three inch ad that spoke directly to him: “Are you looking for a job? Please call vpi.”
“I didn’t have a clue what vpi was, but I called the 1-800 number.” As it turned out, vpi Inc. is an employment facilitation firm and part of the employment services network developed by Human Resources and Social Development Canada in the late 1980s and now a part of Service Canada — a new Government of Canada service delivery organization launched in 2005.
More commonly referred to as the Employment Assistance Services Program, the network was established to respond to the needs of, among others, unemployed professionals across the country — free of charge.
“A lot of people are surprised to find out it exists,” says Gail Rieschi, president of vpi Inc., a longtime member of the network. |
“Geared to a broad spectrum of potential users — professionals both domestic and foreign-trained; persons with disabilities, youth, women — the idea behind it is to have a positive response to the needs of every individual who requires help reattaching to the labour force,” Ms. Rieschi says.
“We’re able to leverage the unique strengths of the different private, not-for-profit and voluntary sector organizations to ensure that people have access to the most professional and appropriate services available.”
The other primary strength of this model is the focus on assessment of client need as the starting point, Ms. Rieschi says. Mr. Dubeau was impressed by his initial meeting. While he came to the network via an advertisement in his local paper, individuals can also access it by stopping into a local Service Canada or Human Resources and Social Development Canada office.
From his first, one-hour meeting, Mr. Dubeau says his job hunt took a turn for the better. “I was told how I could better my resumé, interview skills and electronic job search techniques. I was blown away because I thought I had a good resumé until they started to point out all that was wrong with it. I just took for granted that listing all my jobs in chronological order was the way to do it.”
The assessment centre conducts an employability assessment to determine the key issues. While Mr. Dubeau’s were fairly cosmetic, other people may require new skill development or career counselling. “Once we have an idea of the individual’s needs, a return to work action plan is developed in collaboration with the individual that sets out on a step-by |
step basis what interventions the individual might need,” Ms. Rieschi says. “It may include seven or eight interventions, or only one, depending on the individual’s needs.
"The assessor becomes the case manager and works with the individual throughout the process. So even if someone is sent to different agencies for specific services, the case manager is the common thread throughout the process. And that can take anywhere from two weeks to a year — depending on the individual’s needs.
“It’s all very customized,” Ms. Rieschi says. “Typically, however, people find employment within three to six months. vpi alone has achieved an 85% to 95% success rate and helps more than 10,000 people through the Service Canada program.”
Mr. Dubeau attended weekly meetings to fine-tune his resumé and improve his interview and electronic job search skills for two months. That led to “the best job I’ve ever had,” he says. On May 1, 2006, he started work as supply chain manager for an architectural firm in Toronto. A job, he says, he could not have gotten without the help of the program.
Mr. Dubeau says he went into his interview with the firm’s vice-president armed with a strong resumé and a positive attitude. “He described the company, and then told me they were having some problems. I moved forward, put my elbow on his desk and said, ‘What kind of problems?’ He told me that’s what got me the job."
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