Portage Regional Economic Development (PRED) will be sponsoring a workforce development program in partnership with Portage Collegiate Institute and the Portage Learning and Literacy Centre.

PRED Executive Director Vern May says the program will include an Ontario-based platform called Edge Factor, which helps youth find meaningful employment.

"It creates a resource of video that helps to, in a very relevant and contemporary way to visualize for students what the potential is, based on where their passions lie," says May.

With a region that will soon see 150 new jobs, May says it's important to have people who are qualified to fill those jobs.

"We're working on this initiative that will help us to ensure that the emerging adults that are coming into the workforce looking for gainful employment can find it in Portage la Prairie, and connect them with those opportunities the best we can," May says.

May says the platform includes videos that deal with soft skills, learning for instance what dependability means. He says it also includes great examples of things that are happening now.

"There's some videos on their service that show what a career in manufacturing actually looks like, it's not the assembly line that we may have a stereotypical image of. There's some great innovative things that're happening that young people can get involved with," May explains.

May notes the program will help youth identify the next steps after high school, whether it be post-secondary education here or elsewhere, and says once they have their certification ,they'll know whether they'll have jobs available here. Employers can also add information about their businesses so job seekers know what's available out there.

May says Edge Factor is part of a three-year pilot program where they hope to reach 800 people over those three years.

May says the platform will launch at the Learning Centre in January, and at the end of January at PCI.

To see a video of how Edge Factor works, check out https://vimeo.com/242059358