Summertime is often a time of opportunity in the Kivalliq for those students who seek gainful employment during their time away from the classroom.
And what becomes a summer job today could become a career choice of the future.
Housing manager Gleason Uppahuak of Arviat said he hires 16 summer students every year to work in that sector.
He said he has 10 of them partnered with a service person fixing and cleaning boilers, oil tanks and furnaces, for example, and four of them become painters because his department paints the exterior of so many houses every summer.
“I hire one summer student to be an office administration assistant and one more in the maintenance department filing, and making work orders, service requests and things of that nature,” said Uppahuak.
“I talk to all the students and I encourage them to start studying for whatever trade they want to work with.
“I get a stack of resumes about three inches thick, more than 100 every year, from the students. That's how many students apply every year.”
Uppahuak said he visits the school to ask about those students he's thinking of hiring to find out if they have good attendance and things of that nature.
He said those selected start on the job with housing as soon as school is done for the year and get to work eight weeks with his department.
“Some of them actually end-up in the housing sector," he said. “For example, one of my tenant relations officers (Homer Obszarski Jr.) started his summer student program in 2006, was a casual administrative assistant with housing from 2007-2010, and became a permanent tenant relations officer in 2011.
“That's how you love to see things work out for someone.”
