Creating Natural Resources Career Pathways for Youth
Central Oregon STEM Hub is partnering with several nonprofit organizations and public land agencies to host two workshops to help local youth navigate USAjobs.gov and apply for summer jobs at the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.
The first workshop will be held on Friday, November 3 from 9am-1pm at the High Desert Education Service District at 2804 SW Sixth St., Redmond, OR 97756. The second will be held on November 8 from 9am-1pm at the Ochoco National Forest Supervisor’s Office, 3160 NE Third St., Prineville, OR 97754.
At these events, Central Oregon youth will hear about seasonal positions available on the Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests, Crooked River National Grassland, and Prineville District of the Bureau of Land Management in 2018. They will interact with firefighters, wildlife biologists, botanists, human resources specialists, public affairs staff and others to understand what each job entails and will be offered help refining their resume for open positions.
USAjobs.gov is the website through which individuals apply for federal employment. All students who attend the workshops will need to have a profile created on USAjobs.gov and a draft resume. At these workshops individuals will be able to log on to the website, get first hand guidance from specialists with the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to navigate the federal hiring process apply for positions when they are open.
The need for a USAjobs Youth Workshop was born out of the Central Oregon STEM Hub’s Natural Resource Pathways Workgroup over the last year. Partners recognized that youth encountered a multitude of challenges in navigating the federal hiring process in order to gain a seasonal position with a public land agency. These challenges include a short window to apply, the need for a highly technical and specific resume to demonstrate qualifications, and an increasingly large and competitive pool of applicants.
“We recognized there was a lot of collective wisdom to be harnessed by directly partnering with the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to help young people jump the initial hurdle of getting a quality application through the online recruitment system. The STEM Hub’s natural resource partners have rallied around the opportunity to connect local youth with the tools to be the best applicants they can for these local seasonal jobs,” said Whitney Swander, executive director with the Central Oregon STEM Hub.
Planning partners for the development for the workshop include: Children’s Forest of Central Oregon, COCC, COIC, Discover Your Forest, Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests, Heart of Oregon Corps, High Desert CTE, and the Prineville District of the Bureau of Land Management.
For more information and to RSVP for the event, visit: bit.ly/usajobsCO or contact: whitney.swander@hdesd.org or 541-771-0848
