Community Collaboration – Work NW
Work NW Alberta
Community Collaboration Award
Purpose of Project:
Engagement with businesses consistently identified workforce development as a regional gap, our purpose as the lead regional workforce development initiative is to bridge business, academia, and government. Led by the City and County of Grande Prairie, Municipal District of Greenview in partnership with Grande Prairie and District Chamber of Commerce and Northwestern Polytechnic.
Effectiveness / Meeting Objectives
Our target objectives for the three-year pilot program (2023-2025) were to build our workforce development initiative and support two hundred businesses hire four hundred people in our region.
Results
- Onboarded 321 businesses to our Work Integrated Learning (WIL) Portal
- Directly supported 120 businesses hire or place 1,082 people.
- 665 positions are paid.
- 193 are Highly Qualified Personnel as defined by PrairiesCan.
Media
- 50,729 website views from 32,000 users.
- 2,133,888 Meta impressions
- 356,792 LinkedIn impressions
- 3 million video views
Funding
- Leveraging each municipal contribution 8.4X
- $1,062 municipal $ per job supported
We have achieved this by:
- Creating a centralized hub for workforce development through www.worknwalberta.ca, to display employment opportunities, lifestyle, and resources for potential workers.
- Providing direct one on one support with employers to access grants and support programming.
- The first Canadian eIMPACT dashboard, powered by Lightcast. This tool provides labor market insights, tracking employment trends to support evidence-based decisions.
- Launching Northwestern Polytechnic’s new WIL Portal providing a centralized platform for managing co-ops, internships, and work placements,
- Hiring a regional WIL Specialist to support local employers and students.
- Leveraged $1,237,700 in grants from the Provincial and Federal Governments.
- Developed:
- Targeted recruitment packages.
- Regional workforce profiles for Agriculture, Chemical Manufacturing, Forestry, Health Care, Renewable Energy, and Transportation.
- Launched Marketing Campaigns to raise awareness of regional opportunities.
By providing these customized resources, the project stands apart in addressing specific sectoral needs while adapting to changing market dynamics.
Challenges & Changes
Securing funding was a challenge, once the three municipalities committed to the three-year pilot program, we were increasingly successful in securing additional provincial and federal funding. Our team had to commit to hard targets to support businesses and a tangible return on investment to our funders.
Building the platform with our partners. changes include continuous platform improvements, expanding outreach efforts to underrepresented groups, and fostering partnerships supporting employment and community development.
Building relationships with the business community and tracking placed positions was a challenge solved by shared regional dashboards and consistent reporting.
Target Audience
Our initiative caters to a diverse demographic range including young professionals, families seeking work-life balance, retirees exploring new opportunities, and individuals from various cultural backgrounds. We have engaged with employers to identify their recruitment needs and created customized packages.
Sustainability
Work NW Alberta has fostered strong collaborations with stakeholders, local businesses, educational institutions, and community organizations. WIL is now an integrated component of Northwestern Polytechnic’s WIL program and will continue to support job seekers and employers even if the program does not receive continued support.
Our achievement of our targets will support our phase two requests for continued funding from our municipal leaders.
