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