WELLINGTON – Dec. 7, 2017 – A brand new and free service to promote part-time or casual bilingual jobs has just been launched for the Acadian and Francophone community of Prince Edward Island.

The “Petite job” service, delivered jointly by RDÉE Prince Edward Island, the Acadian and Francophone Chamber of Commerce of PEI and the Wellington Rural Action Centre, was established to fill a real void within the community.

“Some co-ops from the Evangeline area approached the RDÉE, the provincial Francophone economic development council, to help them come up with a new way to recruit employees since they weren’t having much luck filling some full-time positions,” explains Raymond J. Arsenault, who is coordinating the new service. “During the discussions, participants agreed that there are fewer and fewer unemployed people in the community who are searching for full-time jobs. The qualified people who want to work full-time, permanent, tend to already have a job.”

“That’s when a new idea was suggested. Rather than advertize and offer full-time positions, why not try offering several part-time positions to do the same work instead! That would open the door to a whole new market of potential employees – those who already have a full-time position but who would want to supplement their regular salary with income from a second but part-time job.”

Arsenault adds that this type of part-time work is also ideal for students, those who are semi-retired or retired, those who don’t want to work full time and those who want to re-enter the work market one step at a time. This concept could interest people who wish to work a few days or a few hours a week or a month.

SIMPLE PROCEDURE

The coordinator explained that benefiting from the “Petite job” idea is very simple. Businesses and organizations that want to promote a bilingual, part-time position just have to send the job title, job duties and contact information, in French, to raymond@rdeeipe.org. These jobs will be posted on the www.rdeeipe.org/petitejob/ website and on social media. Then, people looking for part-time or casual work just have to regularly visit the site to see what jobs are available then submit their resume to the listed employer.

A promotional page on the new service was recently mailed out to all addresses in the Evangeline region. On the front was a description of the new service. On the back, three part-time jobs were listed.

“Depending on the number of job offers we receive, we might do further mail-outs in the future,” notes Arsenault.

The first reaction to the new service has been quite positive, he adds. “It remains to be seen if this service will lead to the hiring of new people. Since the discussions with the RDÉE, one of the co-ops that has changed its approach to go towards part-time was supposed to advertise a couple of jobs on our promotional page; however, it had to back out at the last minute since it just succeeded in hiring two new part-time employees instead of a full-timer.”

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CUTLINE: Raymond J. Arsenault, RDÉE PEI’s communications officer and the Acadian Chamber’s coordinator, chats about the new “Petite job” promotion service with Josée Ouellette, client services officer with Wellington Rural Action Centre.

 

For more information:
Raymond J. Arsenault
Coordinator of “Petite job” service
902-854-3439, Ext. 231
raymond@rdeeipe.org