The 2026 Arctic Winter Games are more than just a competition. Thanks to the Yukon First Nation Wildfire’s Warrior Program, some youth successfully secured week-long placements related to the games, gaining invaluable professional experience on an international stage. 

The Warrior Program is held twice a year, and gives jobs training and week-long placements to participants aged 16-30. This year the program aligned with the games.

The 10-day program is primarily held at the Yukon First Nation Wildfire building in Whitehorse. Along with getting their first aid training and access to a laptop, participants also learn about other companies, financial literacy, mock interviews, and how to write a cover letter. 

Noah Power, a Whitehorse youth participating in the program, is working with Northwestel for his job placement, broadcasting Arctic Sports.

“It’s definitely been nice for this next week just to do stuff,” said Power, who doesn’t plan to go into broadcasting, but has appreciated the experience. The week-long experience eased a number of anxieties around job hunting, he added.

“This definitely changed my attitude. I feel a lot more confident. I’m trying to find a job after doing the Warrior Program and doing this and hopefully having been a success with this, definitely gives me more confidence for the future trying to find more jobs.”

Power said he feels school falls short in preparing students for the workforce, such as navigating interviews and understanding financial literacy. For instance, Power said he didn’t know a person could ask how often an employer hires people, or how many employees there are. 

“I feel it’s really important that they teach kids how to find jobs and what the struggles they go through finding jobs and not just, ‘oh, we kind of need to find a job when you get older,'” he said. 

Mike Gravitis, manager of community TV with Northwestel, said the Arctic Winter Games were a “great opportunity” to put out a call and give youth a chance to film the games. 

“It’s going fantastic,” Gravitis said. “We’re seeing people from their first time they’ve thought about even holding a camera to accessing bigger and bigger money and broadcasters and really getting out there. So for us as a community TV station, we get a lot out of it.”

‘It’s pretty powerful’ 

Kim Graw, the director of the program, said they often have a waitlist. The program has been held twice a year since 2022, and currently has 50 graduates. 

“It’s pretty powerful to see the changes in the youth as the weeks go on. Like Day 1, they’re all kind of shy and they don’t really want to do the ice breaker games, but like Day 5 they’re tearing apart iPhones together and MacBooks … and just having such a great time.”