{"id":491538,"date":"2026-02-22T06:52:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T06:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/491538\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T06:52:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T06:52:18","slug":"black-history-month-job-fair-a-chance-to-be-seen-make-connections-winnipeg-newcomers-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/491538\/","title":{"rendered":"Black History Month job fair a chance to be seen, make connections, Winnipeg newcomers say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<p>Dozens of Manitobans, including newcomers to Canada, polished up their resumes ahead of an annual job fair held as part of Black History Month this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>The job seekers came to Winnipeg&#8217;s Holy Eucharist Parish Centre Saturday for Black History Manitoba&#8217;s 24th annual employment fair, where they got to meet directly with 12 different exhibitors to discuss opportunities, network and get some job-hunting tips.<\/p>\n<p>Justin McKay, president of the Afro-Caribbean Association of Manitoba, said while a lot of people look for jobs online these days, there&#8217;s still a space to meet and &#8220;put a face to the opportunities.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are a lot of people that have issues finding employment,&#8221; said McKay.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Some people just need a change, like something different they want to do with their life. So it&#8217;s important to get the community together to see what&#8217;s out there, connect, network.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The potential employers at this year&#8217;s event included representatives from government, police and the Canadian Armed Forces. There were also organizations offering newcomers advice on how to search for jobs and reviewing resumes, among other services.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It can be intimidating, especially in the age of being online,&#8221; McKay said. &#8220;A lot of people don&#8217;t have that experience of talking to somebody face to face. We want to help break that barrier.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"A man and a woman posing for a picture with two children (a boy and a girl).\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771743136_382_default.jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.3333333333333333\" data-cy=\"image-img\"\/>Dr. Tracey-Ann Spence-Golaub, a physician from Jamaica, was at the career fair with her husband, Oral Golaub, and their children. (Travis Golby\/CBC)<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Tracey-Ann Spence-Golaub, a physician from Jamaica, came to the fair with her husband, Oral Golaub, and their children. Spence-Golaub said she&#8217;s currently finishing post-graduate studies, but that she&#8217;ll be looking for opportunities in the health services field soon.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Coming from where I&#8217;m from, we are more accustomed to having that direct, face-to-face interaction versus having a automated-system going through your resume,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s important to be able to meet people, speak with them directly so they can see who you are.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Kirk Linton, also from Jamaica, agrees. <\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Crucial&#8217; event for newcomers<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I used to work with the Statistical Institute of Jamaica \u2026 [which] makes you interact with people a lot,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Linton has been job hunting for less than a month, but has already had a couple of interviews and is waiting to get some calls back. The fair was a good chance to find a variety of opportunities in different fields, he said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"A man holding up a piece of paper\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771743136_217_default.jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.3333333333333333\" data-cy=\"image-img\"\/>Kirk Linton holds up his resume. Linton said the fair was a good way to see what sort of opportunities are out there in a variety of different fields. (Travis Golby\/CBC)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You can&#8217;t sit down and expect jobs to come to you,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think this is great because at least you can meet some of the companies, see exactly what they&#8217;re offering and get a better understanding of what you&#8217;re going into.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Spence-Golaub, who has been living in Winnipeg for just over two years, said events like Saturday&#8217;s are &#8220;crucial,&#8221; particularly for newcomers who may not be used to how the job market works in Canada.<\/p>\n<p>They &#8220;make it easier,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It gets us seen, basically.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Banner graphic that reads Being Black in Canada with\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771128850_81_default.jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:4.9324324324324325\" data-cy=\"image-img\"\/><\/p>\n<p>For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians \u2014 from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community \u2014 check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/beingblackincanada\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">You can read more stories here.<\/a>  <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-491538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}