The Halifax Partnership launched a new campaign yesterday encouraging businesses to hire recent graduates and retain young talent in Nova Scotia.

Business owners, community members and educators gathered at the Halifax Central Library to discuss the Halifax Partnership’s new campaign, Game Changers.

The organization’s CEO and president Ron Hanlon (BEng (TUNS)’81) addressed the crowd, announcing the goal of eliminating the number of youth who leave Nova Scotia seeking work within five years. While admitting the loftiness of the goal, Hanlon emphasized that it is attainable.

Halifax Mayor Mike Savage (BA’80) also lent his support to the campaign. He demonstrated the urgency of the problem of youth out-migration from Nova Scotia with concrete figures: 1,300 youth leave the province each year to seek employment elsewhere.

Mayor Savage explained that since taxpayers subsidize each young person’s education by at least $250,000, this out-migration is a big loss of economic investment for the province, in addition to the cultural and social losses.

The Game Changers campaign focuses on advantages of hiring youth, explaining that what recent graduates may lack in years of formal work experience, they often make up for with ability to learn quickly and master new technologies, cost employers less in terms of salary, and innovate with fresh ideas.

Read more in “Youth seen as key to future of N.S.” on thechronicleherald.ca.

Photo credit: The Chronicle Herald Staff.