HR SERVICES
Fast Track to Employment is affiliated with Building Opportunities with Business.
Charitable
Fast Track to Employment is affiliated with Building Opportunities with Business and is focussed on increasing employment opportunities for inner-city residents.
Making a Difference
By 2009, over 370 inner-city residents were connected to employment opportunities with over 100 employers. Lives change when given the opportunity to contribute in the workplace. Corporate Social Responsibility increases when businesses hire locally.
Opportunities for Partnership:
Client Food: Many of the clients served in the inner-city are poor. It is necessary for clients to have access to food in order to be successful before they receive their first pay check. FTE is committed to offering food vouchers to Quest Food Exchange, sample grocery lists and simple menus to clients for the first 2 weeks before they receive their first pay. Cost: $10 per week per person.
Training: builds positive relationships with business and develops customized programs including advertising, recruitment, screening and job specific training which benefits inner-city residents. Employers can participate in designing a training program, contribute to some of the costs and have access to trained and eager participants to interview for specific jobs. Cost: $5,000 for a 5 day session for up to 12 participants, or businesses can participate as a partner with other employers for less.
Job Promotion: committed to increasing employment opportunities for people in the inner-city and supporting the hiring and promotion of inner-city candidates. Funding to assist local residents to increase their skills and be promoted in the workplace provides opportunities for business to promote their employees by funding training and/or certification required to move them forward. Cost: A committee meets to approve WFD applications on a case-by-case basis. Costs vary from $100 to $1,000 per person.
Board of Directors: FTE is led by the same Board of Directors as Building Opportunities with Business.
FTE History
- Created in 2003, FTE (Fast Track to Employment) brought together government, local community trainers, educational institutions and local industry to benefit from local hiring and procurement.
- FIT Ireland was the inspiration for Vancouver's FTE program.
- In 1998, FIT Ireland initiated an innovative concept - the training of long-term unemployed people for a full-time career in the IT (Information Technology) sector.
- With the active cooperation of local government, IT companies, community-based training providers and educators, FIT Ireland graduated over 1,400 people by 2003 and provided Irish communities with previously high levels of long-term unemployment the opportunity to prosper.
- The goal of FTE was to guide and facilitate existing community-based training providers and educational institutions into a coordinated and integrated array of services. This was accomplished using industry-designed curriculum that directly linked to employment opportunities.
FTE founding Board of Directors (2003)
Private Sector Representatives
- Charles Wordsworth, Wordsworth &Associates
- Chris Gora, Farris Vaughan
- Cathy Kwan, Strathcona BIA
- Heather Worosz, Communicopia.net
Public Sector Representatives
- Enzo Guerriero, Britannia Community Centre
- Sabine Tanasiuk, Ray-Cam Coop Centre
- Donalda Greenwell-Baker, Strathcona Community Centre
- Mary Waddington, Vancouver Community College
Community Representatives
- Hendrik Hoekema, Vancouver Eastside Educational Enrichment Society
- Amanda Bonella, PEERS Vancouver
- Bob Gilson, Tradeworks Training Society
- Betty-Ann Miller, YWCA
Government, Ex Officio
- Dana Beatson, Human Resources Development Canada
FTE founding Staff (2003)
- David LePage
- Alessandra Olmedo
- Linda Maria Antolinos