Parents seeking to send their children to their municipal day camp over the summer might hit a few road blocks, as spaces are limited due to lack of personnel and interest among teenagers.
According to Valérie Desrosiers, communications coordinator at the Association des camps du Québec, it’s a common problem that comes up essentially every year. The day camp employee pool is shrinking, and many eligible workers are opting for higher paying jobs in other sectors.
“It’s a challenge every year, even before the pandemic. It has always been a challenge to recruit personnel for day camps, but also sleep away camps and family camps. This year, yes, we know there are some camps that are facing difficulties, we see this,” said Desrosiers.
However, she noted that while some day camps are struggling to fill out their staff, many day camps are full and ready for the start of the summer season. They may have needed to double their recruitment efforts, Desrosiers explained, but they were able to complete their rosters.
The association is trying to get to the bottom of the worker pool shortage, though, and why many day camps need to hustle in order to find interested workers. She said a survey they just conducted should paint a clearer picture, but she’ll need time to review the results first.
“It really depends, if we talk about, well, there’s the salary. Maybe people think they can make more money somewhere else. There are others who think it isn’t an interesting job, you do need a certain energy level to work for a day camp,” Desrosiers told The Record.
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