Thou-sands of Canadians have been left jobless as BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion struggles to overcome a number of hurdles, but the City of Waterloo hopes a jobs centre it opened this week will help the unlucky ones.
As word spreads about the Tech Jobs Connex centre, which opened its doors at City Hall Monday, a trickle of former RIM employees have called to meet with organizers in hopes they'll be quickly catapulted back into a position at another tech company.
"When it did happen, it was not a surprise," said Tunde Obatolu, one of the RIM employees who was handed a pink slip in August. "But the fact remains that no matter whoever you are, you can never be too prepared for that kind of disruption happening in your life."
Obatolu worked at the company for six and a half years and watched from the inside as RIM began to face some of its biggest challenges, including the delays in the release of its new BlackBerry devices.
A father of two children, Obatolu said he wanted to return to the job market as quickly as possible and that's what pushed him to set up a meeting at the RIM-centric jobs centre.
Tech Jobs Connex is a partnership between the Ontario and municipal governments as well as other local groups, including tech industry lobbyist Communitech. Together, they're hoping to help funnel an estimated 3,000 laid off workers in the region into new jobs at other companies.
RIM announced in June that it would cut 5,000 employees worldwide as part of an effort to save $1 billion by the end of its fiscal year in February 2013.
More than half of the company's 16,500 employees - about 9,000 - work in the Waterloo region.
Iain Klugman of Communitech, says the jobs centre is a unique project because jobs programs are typically reserved for massive layoffs at auto plants and mining companies. He says the former RIM employees all have very specific skill sets, ranging from developers and quality assurance representatives, to sales and marketing people. Klug-man is confident there are other opportunities for job seekers at more than 1,000 other tech companies in the region.
