The First Nation and Innuit Youth Employment Strategy Personal Program
Student Employment Training Post Secondary Education Post COVID
Issues to be addressed:
Being in a remote community, when students go to towns and cities they feel like a fish out of water.
They are intimidated by a sudden change and many of them go through culture shock. The students also must know what they can achieve after education in high school and what are options available to them to build their future.
They will have to know, understand and comprehend what their life is about and create purpose for their life. A successful life is a purpose-driven life. The goal is to develop purpose. Then spontaneously resilience, self-esteem and self-confidence will evolve in them.
The Drivers of the Program
To train them on what employment in a city looks like.
How to look and apply for a job.
How to go through the process of an interview.
To train the Youth not what they need to learn or want to learn but what they think they should learn by first showing them the process of goal setting and goal achieving.
To develop the mindset of the student to uphold their culture while looking at the culture of their colonizers which the Indian Act tried to destroy in order to enhance self-respect and self-esteem, respect for their community and their Elders.
To stand on an equal footing with their colonizers while maintaining a strong foothold in their culture.
The whole process of educating and getting a job with dignity.
The Present Conditions
The students get a culture shock when they go into town.
They feel like fish out of water. They see the water but feel helpless to go into the water. We can use the metaphor of a “Beached Whale”. The whale, the biggest most powerful mammal in the world, and sees the ocean in front of them but can’t get into it and roam the ocean.
This program will also handle training the student in the Post-Pandemic changes that have happened. And how to take full advantage of the Post-Pandemic world to get employment and/or generate income.
How the world has become fully automated. The present employment situation is based on innovation and creativity and not on physical labour. The whole world is automated and run by artificial intelligence.
To achieve the above, the following topics will be shared:
- Pre-Contact History
- Post-Contact History
- Evolution of the Reserve System with the Indian Act and attempt of Assimilation and Marginalization of the First Nations (Their People)
- The failure of the Colonizers to Assimilate because of the strength of their own cultural heritage
- Brief History of their People
- Establishment of the Indian Act and how it affected their lives
- The formation of Residential Schools for the purpose of assimilation
Agenda will include the above with emphasis on the following:
- How to set Goals and 8 Steps to Create and Achieve Goals (Set Purpose for life)
- How to decide what you want to Be and Do when you finish School and build your life, your family and your community
- What are the subjects available to achieve your Goals and the process of accessing it
- How to decide on a job, look for it, apply, handle interviews online and offline, how to follow up, negotiate contracts
- The whole interview process role-playing.
- Employment Contract and the Elements of an Employment Contract
- How to look for job opportunities of today and tomorrow
- How to handle failure and cultivate resilience for a comeback bout and become the “comeback Kid”
- How to stand up for your rights and claim it
- How to make a backup plan for life
- Knowing how to quit before you are fired
- Cultivating the Mindset to innovate and create – the jobs of tomorrow are for innovation and creation
- How the world will look after you finish high school
- How to adapt to the new world especially this Post-Pandemic world while staying firmly grounded in the Indigenous Culture of your ancestors (From Trapline to Online yet not forgetting the Trapline…running online employment from Trapline)
- How the laws of the land are made and administered
Open to suggestions from you for any other topics you would like to discuss with the Youth
This training also will include a direct hands-on experience of Corporate Organizations like a field trip if possible:
- To a First Nations Bank
- To a Regional Health Authority
- First Nations Hotel if available
They will get a bird’s eye view of how the Corporate structure works and how they hire and run their business.
Further if time permits, we could include a tour of Municipal, Provincial and Federal Government Offices.