Applications for 2,800 summer jobs through Green Teams and STEP Services are now being accepted, Healthy Living, Youth and Seniors Minister Jim Rondeau announced.
“Many of these positions provide opportunities for youth to gain on-the-job experience in or around their fields of study and the benefits don’t stop there,” said Rondeau. “Young people get opportunities for scholarships, employers get support for new positions and communities get help needed to pursue new projects.”
An often-overlooked benefit is the contribution that students and youth hired through programs such as the Green Teams make to summer experiences and activities for children and youth up to 15 years of age, noted Rondeau.
“This includes providing supervision and leadership for those younger than themselves to play and be involved in positive activities in their communities, to learn new skills, to discover new friends and enjoy the summer months in structured and safe environments.
“Thanks to the enthusiastic leadership of students hired through these programs, approximately 21,000 kids will experience days filled with fun, hit their beds tired at night and collect positive memories that last a lifetime. Programs of this nature that benefit both the young employee and local kids are considered priority investments.”
Of the 2,800 jobs available this summer, an estimated 1,500 students and youth will be employed through the Urban, Hometown and Conservation Green Team programs.
The Urban and Hometown Green Teams provide summer employment for students and youth from 16 to 24 years of age. Successful applicants work in fields like recreation, youth volunteer co ordination, park or trail enhancements, tourism and public education. There are also four $500 scholarships available to students who demonstrate how their participation in a project has benefited a community. Work assignments begin either May 1 or June 13 and end Aug. 31.
The Conservation Green Team provides opportunities for employment in provincial parks and nature sites in areas such as maintenance, wildlife, forestry and interpretative services. These jobs will begin either May 24 or July 4 and end Aug. 19.
The remaining 1,300 jobs are with STEP Services, which will employ high-school and post-secondary students looking for work in government departments, special operating agencies and Crown corporations. The full-time summer component of STEP Services begins on April 26 and ends on Sept. 9. Positions are available throughout Manitoba and include jobs such as lab assistants, information technologists, clerical assistants, travel counsellors and groundskeepers.
“Students gain valuable, career-related employment experience and get an idea of what it’s like to work in the civil service,” Rondeau said. He added the STEP program, created in 1970, encourages students to consider careers in the public sector, which will help in the renewal of Manitoba’s civil service.
Since 2001, more than 14,000 jobs have been created through the provincial government’s Green Teams and STEP Services. The Green Team and STEP programs build on other opportunities to help youth develop job-related skills and are an integral part of the province’s Youth Job Corps, which provides pre-employment supports, mentoring, coaching and jobs for more than 7,600 youth annually, the minister said.
For Hometown or Urban Green Teams, call 204-945-3556 in Winnipeg; 1-800-282-8069, ext. 3556 (toll-free); or register online at www.studentjobs.gov.mb.ca.
For the Conservation Green Team, apply at the nearest Manitoba Conservation district office. For the nearest office, call toll free 1-800-282-8069, ext. 7182 or go to: www.manitoba.ca/conservation/wildlife/about/who.html.
