Website Aims to Link Top Talent With Region's High-Tech Jobs
Victoria's high-tech sector has a new online weapon in the battle to lure the best and brightest to jobs within the local industry.
The Victoria Advanced Technology Council (VIATeC) flipped the switch and brought a new website, VictoriaTechJobs.com, to life on Friday. Designed with both students and technology workers in mind, the new website means to pick up where VIATeC's online job board leaves off.
According to VIATeC executive director Dan Gunn, the new site will allow much more information to be made available to students and tech workers who may be considering a move to Victoria and the local high-tech sector.
"This is about making that connection between the growing companies here in Victoria and the people looking for work," he said.
"For people who already have experience and are looking for tech jobs we have information specifically for them including things like what the quality of life is like in Victoria, a resumé bank where they can post information about themselves, connections to our job board and information about moving to Victoria," said Gunn.
"And for students, most likely they are already in Victoria -we're targeting high school, college and university students -and we profile the types of careers you can get in the tech sector," he said, noting there are a series of videos that show what careers in a tech company are like.
"There are feature interviews with people who work in the sector who talk about how they got there, and what a typical day is like as well as links to the education elements you would need to follow through on."
Gunn said that kind of information is key to hooking young students who love technology but have no idea where to start in terms of getting involved in advancing that technology.
"Generally that's not understood unless you know somebody already working in high-tech," he said.
The local tech sector continues to see growth and demand for workers is growing.
The VIATeC job board now boasts nearly 100 positions, up from 75 just four weeks ago.
"We've seen a real increase in hiring activity among our members this spring," said Gunn. "And based on the growth projections of those companies that will continue through 2011. The real challenge is continuing to draw people to Victoria and making sure they are aware of the tech sector as an opportunity for them whether they are already here or thinking about coming here."
According to Statistics Canada's most recent Labour Force survey released Friday, high-tech employment in Victoria increased slightly in March compared with the same time last year.
High-tech job numbers are split between the manufacturing and services sectors that both saw slight improvement year over year -manufacturing jobs increased to 6,300 from 5,400 while the services sector edged up slightly to 14,300 from 14,200.
However, the news is not so good overall.
Victoria's unemployment rate rose slightly to 6.3 per cent in March, up from 6.1 per cent in February.
And while that is an improvement over last March when the rate hit 6.9 per cent, overall employment is down considerably compared with last year.
Victoria has shed 6,100 jobs since last March as there were 182,400 people working in the city last Month. The total labour force also decreased to 194,500 people compared with 202,400 in March 2010.
According to the national number cruncher, there was year-over-year improvement in the accommodation and foodservices sector that reported a total workforce of 15,000 last month compared with 12,000 in March 2010 and the financial sector was also up boasting 13,000 people working up from 11,000 at the same time last year.
The construction sector shed 1,000 jobs since last March and now boasts 12,000 workers, while retail and wholesale trade dropped to 27,000 workers from 32,000.
According to Statistics Canada there was little change in overall employment in B.C. although the unemployment rate fell from 8.8 per cent to 8.1 per cent as fewer people looked for work.
-Andrew A. Duffy, Times Colonist
