A recent surge of interest for the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP) in the Altona/Rhineland area has program operators baffled.
Stephanie Harris, Economic Development Officer for SEED, reports the number of registered profiles on their website grew by almost 35,000 in the last month, nearly doubling the total to about 81,000. These candidates have also been submitting applications to the RNIP program. One participating business received nearly 10,000 applications, she added.
"I wish we knew where this was coming from," said Harris. "We've done some research on our website to find out where a lot of the traction is coming from and it appears to be from the federal government's website, which means applicants are looking for immigration pathways, finding the RNIP program and then applying to our community."
When compiling all of the information, Harris says there is no specific region or country from where the resumes and applications are coming, but are filtering in from all corners of the world.
"We are at a loss for words. We don't know where it's coming from at this point, or why our community is receiving such incredible uptake." She added, to the best of their knowledge, these are real people creating the profiles and submitting applications.
In an effort to solve this mystery, SEED contacted the IT professionals for the software program it is using to try and identify if there have been any glitches or hacks, and they've confirmed the applicants are legitimate.
While it's been exciting to see this wave of interest, particularly with the current labour market shortage in the area, Harris says it has also created some challenges. She explains, given the sheer number of resumes that are coming in, her office is having to forward each one to the employer whether the applicant has the work experience or not.
"It's causing more of a higher workload for our businesses which we typically try to take on in our office on their behalf to make the hiring process a little bit easier for the local business," she said. "We just don't have the capacity in our office to review thirty-thousand resumes efficiently."
As a result, she says some participating businesses have opted to put a hold on their posted positions just to allow their staff time to leaf through the high volume of resumes they are receiving.
This isn't the only area where SEED has seen a boom. Harris says direct inquiries to the office are also up through emails, phone calls, and in-person drop-ins with numerous people travelling from outside of the community to learn more about the RNIP program.