Many jobs for qualified Inuit, Arjuuk director says

ODILE NELSON

Northern work opportunities abound for Nunavimmiut if they have the education and enthusiasm to take advantage, presenters told students last weekend at a special career fair organized by Arjuuk, an Inuit worker’s co-op based in southern Quebec.

It may have been a familiar message at the fifth annual career fair held April 5 and 6 in Jouvence, Que., but organizers said this year’s workshops were invaluable to the 40 or so first-year college students who attended.

“There’s a lot of 20-year-olds who don’t often know what they want to do in life, and often in Nunavik, in one community, you are not necessarily aware of all the jobs that are available to you,” said Réal Martin, Arjuuk’s general director.

Arjuuk’s career fair, Martin said, allowed students to link with employers, learn what jobs are out there and what qualifications they need to set them on their career path.

Martin said he didn’t tiptoe around the fact that southern workers hold many professional jobs in the North.

“Let’s not kid ourselves. Our message to our participants is right now, the sky is the limit. In the James Bay agreement it is certain that it was agreed that any qallunaat employees will be replaced by Inuit as soon as they are qualified,” he said. “Right now there are about 600 professional qallunaat working in that region. So the sky’s the limit. They [participants] can choose anything they want. They could be a lawyer, doctor, secretary, plumber or electrician. The jobs are there, it’s only for them to choose.”

Martin acknowledged college-level career fairs may overlook high school students who lack direction because they do not believe jobs are out there.

But he said, to his knowledge, the Kativik School Board organizes such events in Nunavik.

“Of course there’s a lot to be done at different levels, at different ages. But we don’t want to repeat what has already been done,” Martin said.

Ten Nunavik employers presented at the event: Air Inuit, the Kativik School Board, the Fédération des coopératives du Nouveau-Québec, Hydro-Québec, Falconbridge, the Kativik Regional Government, Makivik Corp., the Nunavik health board and Avataq Cultural Institute.