Women’s career fair showcases talent, opportunities

Wednesday marked a day of notable change for Ramatoulaye Koete: as she spoke to career scouts, her English flowed — something not possible for her last year — and she was one step closer to a new job.

A billing job, perhaps. A City of Winnipeg staffer flagged it to Koete. She and roughly 400 others had registered for StratHR Solutions’s women’s career fair, which the company touted as a woman-focused first in Manitoba.

“It was a great opportunity for me to meet (employers) here and to introduce myself, and to know how to apply,” Koete said.

Finding a job has been tough, she relayed. She’s been in Winnipeg for 18 months. To start, Koete couldn’t speak English — she’d come from Mali, a West African country, and French was her native tongue.

“I’m looking for French positions, but they need bilingual,” Koete recalled.

So she enrolled in English language classes at StratHR Solutions. She returned to the firm Wednesday, at 62 Hargrave St., to translate her customer service skills into a Winnipeg career.

“We know that equity is still a box check for many employers in Canada,” said Zita Somakoko, president of StratHR Solutions.

“We wanted to challenge the workforce community to say, ‘Hey, you said there are shortages. You’re claiming there are labour shortages, right? OK, well come and see — you’ve got this pool of people that nobody’s tapping into.’”

Many of the attendees were immigrants, including women who’d gone through StratHR Solutions programming.

“They are ready to work,” said Somakoko, who’s president of the Black Manitobans Chamber of Commerce.

Her human resources firm received $4.3 million in federal funding in 2022 to run Narrowing the Gender Gap, a literacy program aimed at getting women into workplaces. Within three days, 1,500 women across Canada had applied, Somakoko said.

The program ended in March 2024 with a training count of 500 women (Canadian born and newcomers). Students learned soft skills like conflict resolution and taking initiative, Somakoko said.

“(I) just really hope that employers in Winnipeg can tap into all of this talent,” said Ashley Dunlop.

She tabled for Economic Development Winnipeg, promoting the online job portal it operates. A list of job postings uploaded Monday — receptionist, cook, occupational therapist — sat nearby.

More than 2,000 employers have joined the Work in Manitoba portal, Dunlop said. People uploading resumés are assisted in making profiles to spotlight their skills.

“We find a lot of times with newcomers, they know what their job is back home and what their training was back home,” Dunlop said. “They were certified to be a bookkeeper. Sometimes they don’t know that in Canada, that can also be an accounting technician, that can be an accounting assistant.”

Focusing on skills helps build connections, she said.

Economic Development Winnipeg has liaised with post-secondaries and settlement organizations to grow the portal. Wednesday marked Dunlop’s first experience with a women-only career fair.

Jashan Sidhu appreciated the female focus: she’s recruiting women for St.Amant. Clients requiring care often ask for female aides, Sidhu explained.

“I think (this is) really good,” she said, a stack of roughly 10 resumés in front of her.

Angelle Holmes attended the fair following a referral from Opportunities For Employment Winnipeg. She’s spent the past half year job searching, applying to two positions online daily, she estimated.

“I’m… hoping being here in person will be a little bit of a leg up,” Holmes said. “Sometimes they get posted online, but I feel like 1,000 people apply for those ones.”

She worries artificial intelligence weeds out her resumé because it has pictures — it’s hard to know, the freelance photographer said.

Manitoba’s unemployment rate was the second lowest among provinces in July, clocking in at 5.5 per cent. Meanwhile, the province’s employment level rose slightly — 0.3 per cent month-over-month — bucking the national downturn.

StratHR Solutions plans to host women’s job fairs across Canada in the coming months. The second will occur in Toronto this winter, Somakoko said.

Fourteen organizations, including government and its branches, tabled in Winnipeg.

StratHR Solutions is also launching a program for immigrant men who need assistance applying their professional credentials in Canada.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com