After nearly four decades of supporting job seekers and employers across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Ray Rauth and the team at Job Skills want you to know one thing. They're not just a job placement agency.
“We’re often thought of as the place people go to for entry-level positions or as a temp agency,” said Rauth, Job Skills’ vice president of corporate engagement and partnerships. “We absolutely do that work, but we also help c-suite job seekers who haven’t applied for a role in 25 years and need their CV updated.”
Rauth knows the mission well. After working with Job Skills as a partner for five years, he said their passion inspired him to join the team in 2015. Job Skills is known for helping people find work, whether they are first-time job seekers or people in government assistance programs. Job Skills also supports newcomers to Canada, many whom face challenges having their credentials and experience recognized here.
“We have an entire team that goes out and connects with employers to talk about how we can connect them to these different talent pools,” he said. “On the job seeker side, we offer everything from fixing up your resume to upskilling.”
For Rauth, the key to Job Skills’ success in connecting employers and job seekers has been keeping its programs and services in step with the changes in employers and industries across Markham.
“Markham has been the envy of a lot of the cities in York Region,” Rauth said. “We’ve watched the growth both from a population and industry standpoint, and the city has made a significant investment into multiple industries, from technology to defence and advanced manufacturing.”
Job Skills’ upskilling programs are designed to help fill in-demand roles. Rauth pointed to recent federal government announcements on dual-use defence funding as another example of new opportunities for employers and job seekers in Markham.
“As soon as I saw the announcement that they were putting billions of dollars into defence contracts, we knew right away that this was going to open up a huge opportunity for employment in our community,” he said.
The majority of Job Skills’ programs and services are free for employers and job seekers thanks to funding from municipal, provincial, and federal partners. Beyond those core services, Job Skills offers fractional human resources, information technology, and marketing services for employers.
“These are paid services for companies who haven’t reached the revenue yet to afford to hire a full-time HR staff or a full-time marketer,” Rauth said. “It’s not a set cost either. We work with the company to find the right match of service for their budget.”
One of the newest services offered by Job Skills is employee engagement surveys and training. As Rauth and his team spoke with employers over the last few years, they identified that measuring employee engagement was becoming a crucial tool for retention and recruitment. After looking at existing offerings, the Job Skills team saw an opportunity to offer a better service at a more affordable cost for their clients.
“We didn’t feel like the value was there for what they were charging, so we created a boutique service for employee engagement,” he said. “We’re able to offer this with little to no markup, and the revenue helps offset the administrative costs of our other programs.”
As Markham's economy continues to evolve, Rauth sees Job Skills as an active partner to help make that growth work for everyone.
“Everything gets put back into the programs. It just builds stronger offerings which ultimately helps everyone in our community,” Rauth said.
