Anchorage Daily News
 

Building an online job pipeline for Alaska Natives




(10/22/09 11:23:16)

Link: The Arctic Sounder An Anchorage businessman whose downtown office is near a soup kitchen and a job placement center has started a Web site that he says is the first clearinghouse for jobs being offered by companies that prioritize Alaska Native hiring. "In the past, you had to be a detective to find jobs, to figure out whether NANA was hiring, or Doyon or the Arctic Slope," said Ben Goenett of Alaska's Finest Tours and Cruises. "I thought, 'OK - something needs to be done.' " Goenett, a Tlingit, also runs a business that distributes federally subsidized cell phones for a dollar a month to welfare recipients, so he often meets people looking for work. "I find myself being a counselor as well as hooking up a phone for people because you have to have a phone for an employer to contact you," Goenett said. His Alaska Native Job Bank currently has about a thousand job listings.

 


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