9 June 2019

PRESS RELEASE – A delegation of 12 representatives of businesses and organizations from Sherbrooke and the Estrie region participated in the 20^th edition of Journées Québec, held on June 1 and 2 in Paris. Four companies from the region – BRP, Dostie Spécialités, Merkur, and Verbom – as well as professionals from Sherbrooke Innopole, the Table des MRC de l’Estrie, Préférence Estrie, and Sherbrooke Mayor, Steve Lussier, carried out several recruitment and networking initiatives.

Organized by the Ministère du Travail, de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale, and the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Diversité et de l’Inclusion du Québec, Journées Québec allows employers to meet and recruit skilled European workers in areas experiencing a workforce shortage in Québec.

Specializing in the sale, rental, and maintenance of forklift trucks, Sherbrooke’s Dostie Spécialités went on its 2^nd international recruitment mission as part of Journées Québec. “During our first experience last year, we recruited two forklift mechanics, one of whom has now been working in the field for a few weeks. The integration is seamless; this motivated us to participate again. This year, we met at least three very interesting candidates; we must now choose to whom we will make job offers. The quality of the candidates we meet each time demonstrates that our participation is relevant,” stated Sylvain Lalumière, Assistant Director of Dostie Spécialités.

The 2019 edition of Journées Québec was also productive for the Sherbrooke engineering consulting firm Merkur, which by the end of this 6^th mission in Paris, had about ten potential hires. In total, businesses from the region were aiming to recruit for 20 positions at Journées Québec.

This was Sherbrooke Innopole’s 11^th time at Journées Québec. New this year, stakeholders from the region’s economic development and regional support agencies were part of the mission. It was therefore under the Estrie banner that partners welcomed skilled workers seeking new challenges in Quebec.

Caroline Manseau, Regional Advisor for Workforce Attraction and Retention at the Table des MRC de l’Estrie, said that “this campaign under a regional umbrella at this year’s Journées Québec has helped increase Estrie’s reach and attractiveness, while a workforce shortage is affecting all regions of Quebec. The TME believes in the importance of increasing regional efforts to establish a greater visibility and to enable our organizations to continue growing, and in turn, enable economic development in our region. We see an ever-increasing interest in our region, which we must all promote.”

“Sherbrooke Innopole has been supporting Sherbrooke SMEs since 2012 at Journées Québec, and once again this year, participating companies were able to benefit from the effective turnkey formula to recruit among Francophone candidates pre-screened based on their hiring criteria,” explained Myriam Gagnon-Couture, Advisor, Talent Attraction at Sherbrooke Innopole. Journées Québec is a platform that facilitates high-quality international recruitment for businesses in Quebec, who in turn benefit from the regional deployment initiated this year; a winning formula!”

Source: Sherbrooke Innopole