Internship investments keeping more youth in the area

Tyler Rea has seen many of his fellow graduates head out west for gainful employment.

Rea was fortunate to land a provincially funded internship with Teco Natural Resources working as a resource technician; that opportunity has turned into a fulltime job.

“There wasn’t many (graduates) who stayed in the Thunder Bay area, so to be able to stay in Northern Ontario and Thunder Bay where I’ve grown up is definitely a good thing,” he said.

Rea’s internship is one of hundreds funded by the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation. This year the NOHFC is investing $1.4 million for 77 internships and co-op placements in both Thunder Bay area ridings.

Through the program, the Boys and Girls Club of Thunder Bay is able to fill two fulltime one-year positions – a fund developer and an IT administrator.

The club’s executive director Albert Aiello said the fund developer will explore, research and make application s to a variety of different grant opportunities and the IT position will cover bringing the club’s computer needs up-to-date as well as ensuring Internet and network safety and transferring some of their skills to the club’s youth.

“As a true non-profit agency, receiving no core funding of any kind from any level of government, to have somebody step in and basically pick up two positions and us not having to worry about that financial aspect of the job is just huge,” Aiello said.

Both positions are worth $27,500; Aiello said they try to add to that but for it’s almost 100 per cent funded by the NOHFC.

The NOHFC has supported 400 placements province wide with an $8.4 million investment since May 2010.