Career fair connections help build opportunity

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on May 15, 2024.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Community members searching for employment take part of the Team Works Career Centre's job fair on Tuesday morning at the Agri-food Hub and Trade Centre.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Members of the community who were in search of employment had the opportunity to meet with multiple potential employers during a career fair hosted on Tuesday by Team Works Career Centre.

Barb Wolstoncroft, manager of Team Works Career Centre, said with close to 60 employers in search of new talent they were hoping to see over 600 job seekers at the AgriFood Hub and Trade Centre.

“This is our fourth job fair in the last couple of years and this one is the biggest one yet. We’ve got over 55 employers from all different industries and they’re looking for everything from entry level to management positions,” said Wolstoncroft.

She said she heard many success stories from the last job fair which makes it very rewarding to be able to offer members of the community an opportunity to connect with potential employers.

“We had so many good success stories from the last job fair. People getting positions that they had been looking for, they’ve been looking for work for a long time and came to the job fair and were able to connect with that exact right employer who was looking for their skill sets,” said Wolstoncroft.

 She said there is one success story in particular that stands out to her.

 “One who had been looking for a long time and he was able to connect with just the right employer and he’s still there and has moved up from a labour position to a manager position in a year.”

From an employer’s perspective, Wolstoncroft said they appreciate having the opportunity to connect in-person with potential employees.

 “They love to come to this event because we get a really good turnout of potential employees. Today in fact, one of them just said to me, ‘we always come to this, it’s our favourite job fair because we always know there’s going to be a good turnout,'” said Wolstoncroft.

One of the employers present was Intercontinental Truck Body (ITB) and Human Resources coordinator Ayesha Mian said they were very happy with the turnout within the first half hour of the event.

“Today we’re out here looking for welders, journeymen, junior fabricators or production technicians and we’ve already had a really great turnout today, super excited for this,” said Mian.

She said being able to meet potential employees face-to-face helps the selection process, as with applications online they just see the resumes but miss out on the interaction.

Heather Lee, a job seeker in attendance, said it was very convenient and helpful to have multiple employers under one roof to be able to connect with.

“I think that you have a potential to sell yourself when you meet an employer face-to-face and you get to find out what they’re looking for and you get to look at the values of their business and you get to meet them in person,” said Lee.

She said that having multiple employers in the same place was very helpful in terms of time management while looking for a job.

“If I was to travel to all these employers, especially those that are here from other places outside of Lethbridge, that would be very time consuming and for some people who don’t have transportation that would be difficult,” said Lee.

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