Starting Point

Practical strategies for facilitating Starting Point include but are not limited to:

• Workshops including presentations, activities and discussions.

• Presentations accompanied by worksheets, engaging students in writing down vital information to improve chances of recall later.

• Scheduling of third-party presentations (details including contact for booking is located in separate Starting Point document). Past examples include TD Bank (Financial Literacy), the Vancouver Island Construction Association (Tailgate Toolkit, about industry substance abuse), and the University of Northern British Columbia (University 101).

• Interaction with those able to share relevant and respectful interactions with Indigenous culture including ceremony. This must always be done as allowed in PGNFC Policy, never reaching out independently to individuals to share ceremony or teachings without prior clear advice and permission from the PGNFC Cultural Advisor(s).

• Assignments: to improve rates of completion, it is usually prescient to provide time to complete or at least start assignments as part of scheduled attendance.

• Honest and neutral discussion of working environments encountered as part of an industrial workforce or industry-adjacent workforce. Attention should be given to the systems by which workers can seek justice or intervention when faced with discriminatory, unsafe, or otherwise unscrupulous work situations. Discussion of workers’ rights should always identify regulatory bodies relevant to specific courses of training, WorkSafeBC, and the Employment Standards Act. Facilitator must present these topics as awareness/information, and not as uncertified legal advice.

• Facilitator-initiated check-in contact, including email, text messages, and phone calls. Appointments post-program should be made available on an as-needed basis, respecting flexibility required for those conducting job searches or currently working.

• Email newsletters/mailing lists to keep jobseekers aware of high-opportunity events and job postings, in between individualised contact.

• Individualised training plans for jobseekers that are unable to attend scheduled programming; this includes scheduling one-on-one meetings to provide educational content and individual bookings of pre-existing training opportunities. Extra attention should be given to ensuring jobseekers know when and where they are expected to attend, as they have no cohort peers to ask for clarification or reminders.

• Utilisation of skills and time by Employment & Training teammates (as feasible with their schedule), should certain jobseekers remain unreceptive to facilitators attempts at job readiness education.

• NE Invitations should be extended to known, responsible professionals for visits; facilitator should make special effort to provide opportunities for jobseekers to engage with professionals of equity-seeking demographics, especially as industrial trades remain inequitable in the rates of hire for different minority groups.