Lots of interest from employers, job seekers at job fair
CHAMBER EVENT ATTRACTS MORE THAN 50 EMPLOYERS, 1,000 JOB SEEKERS
Local businesses and job seekers came together on Wednesday for an annual job and career fair presented by the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce.
“Opportunity Knocks” is a full-day career fair which has become an annual event in the city.
Karla Pyrch, executive director for the chamber, said more than 50 employers and job support services were at the event, which was expected to host more than 1,000 potential job seekers.
‘We have a lot of employers here today who are ready to hire on the spot,” said Pyrch. “There’s lots of different positions available, from entry-level positions, labour, administration and trades positions.”
Pyrch said there was a lineup waiting for the event to start, and that they were very busy through the morning hours.
“It’s a large variety of people coming through,” she said. “There are students and mature workers. It is a large variety of job seekers.”
A few years ago, the fair was mostly utilized by students. And then last year, there was more variety but there were not as many employers. This year, Pyrch estimates there are 10 more employers and many more open positions available.
“I think it shows we are pretty stable here,” she said. “Compared to other parts of the province, we’ve really been fortunate here in Lethbridge to have a more stable economy.”
She said the chamber is also collecting information on minimum wage increases in Alberta during the fair to see how jobseekers have been affected.
She noted there is a large amount of diversity within the companies themselves as companies look for those perfect fits across a number of departments.
“To have a space where it attracts jobseekers and employers of all types is a good opportunity for those connections to be made,” she said. “And maybe, jobseekers will see an employer that they hadn’t thought to apply to, so it opens new possibilities for them.”
Judy Stolk-Ingram, executive director at Career Transitions, said Career Transitions attended the job fair in a dual role as a resource for jobseekers, and also to host an information session for high school and post-secondary students titled “How to get the most out of a job fair.”
The goal was to explore what it means to be on a “job search,” much more so than simply dropping off resumes and hoping for the best.
“We’ll be coaching some of these students on how to start conversations with some of the people here,” she said. “There are some great exhibits, and
everybody is here because they want to talk to potential job candidates. We just need to bridge that gap.”
Stolk-Ingram said everyone at the fair plays a role in helping youth further their career plans.
“It’s of critical importance,” she said. “People don’t know what they don’t know. I think that’s particularly true of our youth, who often don’t know what kinds of questions to ask. I think to have all these resources and great people in one room for an entire day is a great opportunity for job seekers. It’s also important for us as employers to be able to have an opportunity to connect with these people.
“A person might be stellar, and amazingly skilled, but maybe they haven’t perfected the best resumewriting techniques yet. So their piece of paper doesn’t accurately reflect who they are and what they have the capacity to do.
“There should be hope, even when there are challenges.”
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