JOB Successfully fighting the labour shortage


Monday, 24 January 2022 04:30.PM

- This is the effective and winning formula developed by the Eureka Centre, even for doctorate holders. -

More than 22,000 people have found stable employment and good working conditions over the past 45 years, thanks to the Eureka Centre, whose mandate is to give a second wind to the employment and careers of people aged 40 and over who, for one reason or another, find themselves in a phase of reintegration into the workforce and career reorientation.

This was the assessment made today by Mr. Paul Gagner, General Manager of the Centre Eurêka, who stated that the Centre's users not only benefit from a job after a few months of upgrading, but, above all, from a stability and a progression in employment that will allow them to extend their professional life and/or their career by at least 10 years; which, in view of the labour shortage problem, constitutes an added value for the candidates themselves and a real added value for the employers, whatever their horizon.

"In fact, we give a second active professional life to our candidate-clients, the vast majority of whom, as incredible as it may seem, have a college education, and some even have a doctorate," said Mr. Gagner, maintaining that the placement rate fluctuates between 75% and 80%, year after year, for jobs whose salaries can vary, depending on various academic factors, from $35,000 to $125,000 per year.

These are largely professional positions that Eureka Centre candidates can access. "Our statistics show that 30% of our clientele have returned to a professional environment, while 22.5% of our cohorts have been able to return to management positions in the private or even public sector and/or institutions," said Ms. Hédia Annabi, the Centre's Team Leader, mentor and principal trainer, emphasizing that gender parity is an undeniable and established fact at Eureka, with 51% and 49% respectively. She went on to say that 60% of the cohorts welcomed each year are from Quebec and Canada, and 40% are newcomers.

For the Centre's directors, it is not enough to simply return people to employment, but rather to orient and prepare them for an eventual retirement that will allow them to maintain an acceptable standard of living, thanks to the salary conditions acquired.

In this regard, the Centre's Executive Director indicated that since federal and provincial government pensions are based, once they reach retirement age, on the average salary of the last five years of active life, it was all the more important to ensure that, once they reach that age, candidates who are reintegrated into employment can benefit from the maximum benefits available.

For Mr. Gagner, the economic benefits of the Centre Eurêka's partnership with Emploi Québec speak for themselves and clearly indicate that the model developed by Eurêka generates significant economic spin-offs. On a payroll of $5M attributed to the employment of 120 Eureka candidates, the tax returned to Quebec is 35%, or $1.2M, excluding the $1.7M returned in consumption taxes.

But what we are most proud of, concludes the management of Centre Eureka, is the fact that we are able to help our candidates regain their dignity, their self-esteem, their social status and above all the respect of their immediate environment as well as their families.

SOURCE: Centre Eurêka

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