PLT Canada Hosts Successful Green Jobs E-Summit

April 02, 2020

PLT Canada’s Green Jobs E-Summit featured six youth presenters and six professionals, each sharing their experiences working in the forest and conservation sector to over 100 attendees.

Over 100 attendees joined forest and conservation sector professionals from SFI-certified organizations and partners across Canada for PLT Canada’s Green Jobs E-Summit. Together, they learned about the diversity of green career pathways, the life of a forester, why conservation jobs matter, tracking grizzlies, and even how a green job could stop aliens!

“I enjoyed the presentations and the entire webinar. I can’t thank PLT Canada enough for the amazing opportunity to take part.”

Kieran Wasuek, Green Jobs Youth Presenter

Originally scheduled as a two-day, in-person event, PLT Canada’s first-ever Green Jobs Summit went online because of COVID-19 concerns. It was an important opportunity for participants to learn about the diversity of careers in the forest and conservation sector and the important skills they will need to be successful.

In session one, youth talked to their peers about green jobs. In session two, professionals presented about career options in a diversity of fields, and shared their experiences on their own career pathways.

“Thank you so much for hosting such a great event, and for inviting me to participate alongside such a stellar lineup!”

Lacey Rose, Registered Professional Forester

Success in numbers

• 97% of attendees evaluated the PLT Canada E-Summit as “good” or greater.
• 18% of attendees were from a rural community (25,000 people or less)
• 61% of attendees were under 25 years old
• 50% of attendees had never been part of PLT Canada’s Green Jobs program before and wanted to know more about opportunities
• The E-Summit hosted attendees from SFI-certified organizations as well as Canadian Parks Council employers

Engaged youth in conversation with experts

The morning and afternoon sessions ran overtime to accommodate dozens of questions from participants. Youth asked a range of questions that led to very informative answers, including:

• What courses or training should I take to set me up for a green career?
• What skills do you use every day?
• If you were trying to find your first green job, what would you do?
• Who inspired you to find a green job?
• How can employers support more youth in green jobs?
• I want to get a green job working with Indigenous communities. What path should I follow?

PLT Canada is looking forward to hosting more Green Jobs E‑Summits in partnership with the Government of Canada’s Youth Employment and Skills Strategy.

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PLT Canada is an initiative of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.