Over 3,000 local students attended Wednesday's job fair. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Life after school

Prince Albert job fair helps local students nail down opportunities

Oct 15, 2025 | 4:29 PM

The President and CEO of the Saskatchewan Construction Association looks on and smiles as two high school students attempt to hammer a long nail into a wooden 4×4.

The Association was one of over 80 vendors attending Wednesday’s job fair at the Art Hauser Centre. Shannon Friesen told paNOW the message to the youth is construction is a viable career choice for absolutely everyone.

“Not everybody wants to spend a long time at university and getting out with no debt and having a living wage job is a really good opportunity,” she said.

Friesen explained they see youth as the future of our industry, and the industry is really about building the province.

“So if we don’t have people that want to do that, we don’t have hospitals, we don’t have schools, we don’t have roads. We need people to be attracted to the trades and seeing it as a viable career of choice. So it excites us to see the excitement from them.”

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Wednesday’s job fair was sponsored by the City of Prince Albert and Lake Country Co Op, and represented a joint partnership between the Sask Rivers School Division, Prince Albert Catholic School Division, Sask Health Authority, Sask Polytech and Community Futures.

In addition to representatives from the construction association, there was also representation from health, RCMP, city police, fire department, and forestry. There were also representatives from several colleges both in Saskatchewan and from out of province. Committee Chair Corrine Schwehr acknowledged it was important to have diverse representation.

“We want students to have the opportunity to connect with a wide range of our occupations,” she said.

And while noting there were some employers who were actually hiring on site, Schwehr said the feedback from both students and those with displays was very positive.

“I think the goal every year is for kids to leave, attendees to leave with information that’s helpful to them as they look into their future. We want a smooth running day. We want to see kids enjoying the themselves. We want to see displayers happy with the amount of attendees they’ve been able to connect with and access,” she said.

Sask Power was also on site. Aaron McKinnis, the operating manager for the Prince Albert Central area with distribution service services, was introducing youth to the line trade and providing visual demonstrations.

“We’re hiring 24 apprentices a year within Sask Power, and any opportunity we have to get in front of the youth, and introduce something into what SAS power has to offer is a good thing.”

(Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

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