Local employers who are a part of Lethbridge College’s Child and Youth Care Advisory 
Committee came to a meeting last year with a problem.
They didn’t have enough men, immigrants or First Nations, Métis and Inuit people working in the field. So they asked if the college could help.
The college said yes – and this long-time partnership between industry and the college resulted in a new initiative to recruit more men, immigrants and FNMI students into the Child and Youth Care program and ultimately into waiting jobs. “Locally and more broadly, throughout the province of Alberta, there are very significant shortages,” says Ron Solinski, a Child and Youth Care (CYC) instructor at Lethbridge College.
Attracting a broader pool of workers can be a challenge though. “Men are successful in this career, but I think that, in some cases, people may misunderstand the work we do,” Solinski adds. “In some cases, they may be confusing Child and Youth Care with early childhood education. What we do is very similar to social work – we work with children, youth and families.”
Graduates of Lethbridge College’s CYC program find a ready supply of jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities after finishing their studies, most often in residential care, family support, child protection, and as school youth and child care workers. Graduates may also complete degrees through partnerships with Alberta and British Columbia universities and Griffith University in Australia. The college signed an agreement with the University of Lethbridge just last fall to allow CYC students to take their diplomas and transfer easily into the university’s Addictions Counseling degree program.
To reach out to a more diverse group of students, Solinski and another member of the committee, Mark Weninger, Program Surpervisor, Sifton Family and Youth Services, worked with the college’s FNMI Manager, Robin Little Bear, to secure support for the new recruitment policy from the Aboriginal Council of Lethbridge. Lonnie Slezina (Child and Youth Care ‘90), Chief Executive Officer, Child and Family Services Authority, Southwest Alberta, also threw her support behind the new policy.
Slezina says that industry partners are looking for employees with diverse backgrounds to work with clients who come from a wide variety of places and experiences.
“Aboriginal people in the field might be better able to connect with some clients,” says Slezina. “Similarly, males might be able to speak more effectively to a male parent. And our immigrant population is also growing,” and a CYC practitioner with experience in immigration might be the most persuasive person to help.
The demand for trained child and youth care practitioners is great – and the college is shifting its recruiting efforts to reflect this reality.
“Child and Youth Care is a highly marketable education-to-employment program,” says Natasha Buis Deering (Community Services and Therapeutic Recreation, General Studies ‘96), the college’s manager of Academic Advising. ”We’re seeing a lot of opportunities to leverage the demand – especially for men, immigrants and FNMI students – in our recruitment.”
