Partnerships/Projects

NTAB’s Partnerships for 2024-2025

Partnership:  Healthcare Recruitment Fair

We will aim to cultivate a future workforce by informing current students and the general public with timely and accurate viable healthcare career information from local employers representing industries and educational opportunities.

Issue and Priority: This event will incorporate everything required in a strong partnership/event and will have successful measurable outcomes for job seekers, employers and community participants. NTAB will also collect satisfaction surveys.

Key Partners:  NTAB and Riverside Healthcare.

Expected Outcome: This fair will incorporate everything required in a strong partnership/event and will have successful measurable outcomes for job seekers, employers and community participants. NTAB will also collect satisfaction surveys.

Status:  This partnership is in the planning phase.

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Partnership:  Virtual Career Fair for Newcomers

NTAB will plan and co-host a virtual career fair for potential Newcomers to the Rainy River and Kenora Districts; featuring employers from Northwestern Ontario.

Issue and Priority: This virtual event will incorporate everything required in a strong partnership/event and will have successful measurable outcomes for job seekers, employers and community participants. NTAB will also collect satisfaction surveys.

Key Partners:  NTAB will be the lead.

Expected Outcome: By connecting Newcomers who are unemployed/under-employed to employers who are experiencing labour shortages, we hope to address some of these gaps to enhance opportunities for employers and job seekers.

Status:  This partnership is in the planning phase.

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Partnership: 2025 Calendar

Using our most relevant data create a calendar for distribution among our partners and stakeholders. Each month would have a topic and information that tells our story and shares local intelligence and challenges and gaps. The topics would be based on our trends; aging population, in-migration, training, skilled trades, older workers/generation gap, health care, hospitality and tourism, shifts in key employment sectors, literacy and essential skills, and Indigenous workforces. We can also showcase the use of EO services. This would be a tool for keeping our brand and logo fresh and relevant and would give NTAB more exposure and have others that might not know what our services are see how we can be of assistance providing the information needed to be aware of the work that we do. It would be a way to share our success stories and best practices as well.

Issue and Priority: NTAB produced a calendar in previous years and it was very well received. It would be a good project to get our information out there again in a yearlong format. Not just when we have partnership activities or Community Consultations. It would show the public what we do with the information that we collect as well as being a useful tool for sharing our statistics and goals.

Key Partners: NTAB will be the lead.

Expected Outcome: NTAB would look at distributing these calendars through the use of the local Chambers of Commerce to target employers, businesses and all of the Employment Ontario Service providers. It could also be sent out as our December Christmas greeting card to our mail outs.

Status:  This partnership is in the planning phase.

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Partnership: Economic Development Training – Leadership Through Change

In our small communities, issues around an ever-changing economy remain, as we are still feeling some affects from the COVID-19 pandemic, townships, cities and municipalities struggle to maintain a strong labour force, while developing new strategies for recruitment to local areas. NTAB will partner with NCDS and work with a trainer to host a professional development event focussed to leadership professionals.

Issue and Priority: NTAB will collect and utilize feedback from participants, while offering training to those professionals and community organizations who have been affected by the changing workforce post-pandemic.

With an aging population and out-migration of our local youth, we struggle to sustain viable community opportunities to create growth.

Key Partners:  NCDS and NTAB, local community support partners, along with a hired Trainer.  We also asked various organizations and stakeholders to share the event details.

Expected Outcome: This interactive session will offer new ideas in how to manage change in a working environment.

The one-day session will;

Build trust, commitment, and positive results through any change initiative. Organizational change is constant. And yet many people react to change with denial or resistance. As a change leader, your ability to help people overcome their reactions and get onboard with new initiatives is critical to your success. In this one-day workshop, you’ll gain practical tools that will enable you to

manage reactions to change and communicate in a manner that inspires followership and optimal

productivity through any change initiative.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Understand your role as a change leader
• Get clear on your own reaction to change as well as the reaction of those you work with
• Appreciate why others may react negatively to change and how best to respond
• Adapt your communication style to gain buy-in and support from others toward change initiatives
• Increase the readiness to embrace change and overcome resistance in your work environment

COURSE BENEFITS

• Embrace or reconcile the reality of change, address and decrease anxiety, and concentrate on productivity and results
• Begin establishing your reputation within your organization as someone that can manage change and demonstrate agility and resilience
• Set a positive example for colleagues or direct reports when handling significant changes in the workplace

COURSE FEATURES

• Self-assessment that will give you insight into how you react to change
• Practical case scenarios to apply your new change management skills
• Job aids to ensure you have the tools to apply your learning back in your work environment

Status:  Completed on Tuesday, April 9, 2024 in Fort Frances

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NTAB’s Partnerships for 2023-2024

Partnership:  Northwestern Ontario Pitch It

The NWO 2023 Pitch IT saw Entrepreneurs from the Northwestern Ontario Region Pitch their business ideas to a panel of Judges and Investors for the chance to win prizes, recognition and support. The NWO Pitch IT competition was open to individuals located within the Kenora and Rainy River Districts with a business idea, new business start-up or proposed business expansion.

NTAB participated in support services, judging the competition and marketing for the event.

Those in competition gained confidence, feedback, knowledge and key skills to enhance their business proposals and had the opportunity to access funding and grant applications to apply towards their business.

Issue and Priority: Entrepreneurs are the future of our districts’ business industry.  With an aging population and affects of COVID-19 post-pandemic, many businesses are continuing to suffer and close their doors for good.  Supporting new Entrepreneurs is of high importance to allow our small communities to grow and prosper.

Key Partners: Northwest Business Centre, Northern Ontario Angels, Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre, NTAB and multiple sponsors.

Expected Outcome: Entrepreneurs gained valuable skills, knowledge and support to move forward with their business start-up.  NTAB will gain exposure and develop stronger relationships with our local business support services to assist in enhancing our local workforce and identify possible future opportunities.

This partnership was completed on April 20, 2023.

See media details here:  https://www.kenora.ca/en/news/pitch-it-winners-announced.aspx

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Partnership:  New Beginnings Job Fair

NTAB co-hosted a job fair in the Kenora; featured employers from Dryden & surrounding areas in Retail, Tourism, Hospitality, Health Care, Transportation, Trades, Construction and more.  The fair incorporated everything required in a strong community partnership/event and had a successful measurable outcome for job seekers, employers and community partners.

Issue and Priority:  There is a major shortage in our labour force across the region.  By connecting individuals who are unemployed/under-employed to employers who are experiencing labour shortages, we hope to address some of these gaps to enhance opportunities for employers and job seekers to grow together.

Key Partners:  NTAB, Patricia Area Community Endeavours (CFDC), Northwest Employment Works, and Dryden District Chamber of Commerce.

Expected Outcome: By connecting individuals who are unemployed/under-employed to employers who are experiencing labour shortages, we hoped to address some of these gaps to enhance opportunities for employers and job seekers to grow together.  220 job seekers attended the Job Fair.

This partnership was completed on April 26, 2023.

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Partnership: Recruiting & Retaining Talent in a Post-Pandemic World

There is no question that the world of work has changed. Spurred on by the Covid-19 pandemic, it is now harder to attract great talent and even harder still to keep them. NTAB worked with 2 trainers to host 2 webinars directed to employers.

Issue and Priority:  Our accustomed ways of recruiting and retaining our teams that were tried and true no longer work. We need to demonstrate how to recruit and retain staff in flexible, healthy work environments.  NTAB collected and utilized feedback from participants, while offering a much needed workshop to those employers and community organizations who have been affected by the changing workforce post-pandemic.

Key Partners:  NTAB as the lead, Patricia Area Community Endeavours as co-lead.

Expected Outcome:  This highly interactive session explored what employees are looking for in an employer, generated ways in which to shine above the competition, and examined how to creatively motivate and engage staff to want to stay.

This partnership is complete;  One presentation was delivered in person on May 31, 2023, The second presentation was delivered virtually on June 5, 2023.

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Partnership: Apprenticeship Skills for Success Connections/Service Coordination

Enhance local planning and coordination to support the integration and alignment of Literacy and Basic Skills services with Apprenticeship.

Participate in all planning meetings to determine next steps and collaborate with planning partners to support all activities required to successfully complete the deliverable and achieve the forecasted outcomes.  Collaborate with partners to further inform supports, service coordination, and program delivery of Literacy and Basic Skills (LBS) Apprenticeship services.

Create promotional materials for employers and service providers.

Evaluate respondents to report increased knowledge and understanding of the subject matter and LBS services and increased knowledge and/or understanding of the LBS program’s role in providing support and training for learners on the Apprenticeship and Employment goal paths.

Issue and Priority: The employment and apprenticeship goal paths have both been identified by LBS agencies and regional networks as an area for capacity building.  This project will promote connections between EO partners, (LBS, ES, local boards etc.) and employers and also support high quality delivery of workforce and entry into the skilled trades.

Key Partners: Literacy Northwest as the lead, NTAB, and North Superior Workforce Planning Board.

Expected Outcome: Enhanced service coordination capacity and understanding of the LBS program’s role in providing support and training for learners on the Apprenticeship and Employment goal paths, with an increased number of learners across Northwestern Ontario registered in the LBS Apprenticeship Goal Path.