On March 17 and 18, for the second consecutive year, the Association franco-yukonnaise (AFY) took part in the Job and Training Fair at the Montreal Convention Centre. This initiative is part of Direction Yukon, AFY's recruitment program, aimed at increasing the number of bilingual employees in the territory. The organization's representatives met a thousand job seekers interested in working in the Yukon. Among these candidates, there were a number of professionals working in health care, education, construction, tourism and the public sector as well as many students looking for summer jobs. About fifty people attended a lecture promoting the lifestyle and job opportunities in the Yukon. Eighty job offers were presented during the two-day fair. Job seekers were curious and keenly interested in the jobs available in the Yukon in their fields. "We would be going from +25 degrees Celsius to -25, but I am sure we would adapt", Edgar Velasquez, an engineer originally from Colombia, told Louise Leduc, a journalist for Montreal daily newspaper La Presse. Thanks to the participation of AFY at the March 2008 Job and Training Fair, seven people relocated to the Yukon and are still here. Several of the candidates who came to the Yukon booth last year came back this year, with a growing interest in the territory. The AFY also made a presentation about the Yukon at the Institut de tourisme et d'hôtellerie du Québec. The information was given to about fifty students looking for summer placements. To date, several of them have contacted Yukon tourism entrepreneurs. Direction Yukon was created last year. The program came out of Make Way for Youth - Yukon, a pilot project that ran from 2005 to 2008. Since then, the AFY has actively taken part in the Yukon government's personnel recruitment and labour retention initiatives. For more information on the program, visit www.direction-yukon.ca.
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