Officials with Manpower and the Red Deer and District Chamber of Commerce cut the ribbon for the grand opening of Manpower's new Career Leap program on Tuesday.

By Sheldon Spackman

Meeting Workforce Needs

Chamber hosts grand opening of Career Leap program

Sep 11, 2019 | 10:48 AM

Local job seekers now have a new tool they can use to help them find work.

Tuesday marked the grand opening of Career Leap – a Manpower program aimed at providing employers with access to a pool of skilled and motivated talent available for immediate employment. A celebration hosted by the Red Deer and District Chamber of Commerce.

Heidi Brandley, director of workforce development at Manpower, describes Career Leap as a transition employment services program funded through Alberta Labour and Immigration but delivered by Manpower.

“It’s an employment services program that aims to get people who are currently out of work, back into the workforce through a combination of things,” she explains. “Upscaling, helping them out with short courses or other skill development opportunities, as well as just assisting them in their job search skills, so that they’re able to attach to employment sooner.”

With a rapidly changing economy, Brandley says the time for this program is now.

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“I think that people are finding it a little more difficult to find employment,” declares Brandley. “As well, some individuals are realizing that their roles have changed in such a way since they last worked, that it’s more difficult to enter back into the workforce. So we’re really working on leveraging people’s transferable skills and upscaling them in a way that can get them back to work sooner.”

Brandley notes significant technology shifts occurring in today’s workforce.

“With that, companies are perhaps changing the types of skills that they’re asking for in their employees,” says Brandley. “They’re asking individuals to perhaps work in more diverse ways than they were in the past. So there are a lot of changing demands on employees as they’re looking to get back to work that they may not have come across before.”

For local job seekers, Brandley says adaptability is key.

“You really have to be able to show that you’re able to adapt and continue to learn in order to keep up with the rapid pace of change in the market and to keep yourself employable,” adds Brandley. “Interestingly, today is actually also the day that Manpower has released their quarterly Manpower Employment Outlook Survey and actually Red Deer has shown the most optimistic outlook across the province. So Red Deer is actually positioned very well with a 17 per cent outlook on employment of employers that are anticipating hiring in the next quarter and we have a 12 point increase in employment overall for this quarter.”

Brandley points-out four other Career Leap locations across the province as well, including in Calgary, Airdrie, Edmonton and Fort McMurray.

For local job seekers or employers looking to explore their options, Career Leap is located in Red Deer’s Manpower office at 4406 #302 50 Avenue. You can also visit www.manpowerab.com or the Career Leap website directly at www.careerleap.ca.