In a town like Jasper, opportunities in the tourism industry abound.
Whatever your experience, interest or skill-set, there鈥檚 a job for you, and that鈥檚 only becoming more true, as the province faces significant worker shortages in tourism and hospitality.
Jasper felt those shortages all summer long, and they are only predicted to get worse into the future.
The Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council predicted in a 2012 report that there will be a labour shortage of nearly 7,800 jobs in Alberta by 2015. By 2030, that number jumps to 24,562 full-year jobs.
With such a forecast for the future, something鈥檚 gotta give, or it won鈥檛 be long before Jasper businesses don鈥檛 have enough employees to keep their doors open.
Already managers and supervisors work long hours at the end of the summer season, to make up for the loss of employees who head back to university in mid-August, and they work long hours when there isn鈥檛 an employee to be found.
To have those shortages increase and persist would be crippling. That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 so integral that businesses encourage youth to pursue careers in the industry.
The Jasper Park Chamber of Commerce set up a panel discussion to do just that last week.
The panel, which presented to a room full of Grade 11 students, was made up of a number of local industry experts, who shared their personal stories of how they landed their dream jobs.
The scary thing was, when Pattie Pavlov, general manager of the chamber, asked the students how many had considered a job in the industry, not a single hand went up.
Her response was, rightfully, 鈥淵ikes!鈥�
Despite the fact that Jasper鈥檚 youth are growing up in a tourism mecca, not a single one in a group of 30 had even considered tourism as a possible career path. That suggests the the industry is doing something dreadfully wrong.
It seems unimaginable that a 16-year-old, living in the middle of a national park that relies almost solely on tourism for its livelihood, could get this far in life without thinking, 鈥淢aybe one day I鈥檇 like to take over the family business, or open a business of my own, or become a chef or an interpretive guide.鈥�
There鈥檚 a whole host of jobs in the tourism industry that these youth see and benefit from everyday, but they likely don鈥檛 know there are opportunities beyond an entry level position.
That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 so exciting that the chamber of commerce is offering students job shadowing opportunities with businesses within its membership.
Such experiences could enlighten Jasper鈥檚 youth to the possibilities within the tourism and hospitality industry, and it could also help Jasper stay afloat.
