Sasha Lockyer, 17, graduated from Corner Brook Regional High School earlier this summer and is headed to Sir Wilfred Grenfell College next month. She wants to go to medical school and become a psychiatrist, so she’s doing a year of general studies to get her university career going.
In the meantime she went to the Service Canada Centre for Youth looking for a job. She got one at the Family Outreach Resource Centre as a student resource worker.
She’s really glad she went to the centre in the Smallwood Building. The youth centre officially closes for the season today.
“They helped me a lot with trying to find a job and this is the one that suited me best,” Lockyer said. “I like working with children. It’s not laid back, but it’s very casual and very fun. It’s just the kind of thing I like to be doing, especially in the summertime.”
Children come to the centre Monday mornings, Tuesday afternoons and Thursday mornings. She plays with the children in the play room and leads different activities.
This was the first job she got through the youth centre.
“Last year I did look through it and I did apply for a several jobs through the Job Bank,” she said. “Unfortunately I didn’t find anything last summer.
“I tried it again. There’s so many different job choices and the information’s all there for you to see.”
Meagan Hussey, the centre’s lead youth services officer, said the program was a success in her last year with the centre after three.
She’s a nursing student and will be finished the program by next summer, so she’s hoping for a nursing-related job.
The program surged ahead of last year with the vacancy rate going through the roof.
Last year there were 116 job postings with 148 vacant positions. About 120 of those were filled. This year there were 115 job postings, but there were 231 vacancies described in those postings and more than 200 job orders were filled, not including the Odd Job Squad’s efforts.
“We had a great summer,” Hussey said. “We got to meet a whole bunch of new people and got to do some great activities around the town. We got to do a clean-up day for Corner Brook.”
