REVERSE JOB FAIR MATCHES CTE STUDENTS WITH EMPLOYERS
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After a two-year absence, the Clare-Gladwin Career & Technical Education Reverse Job Fair returned in a big way this week, as more than 200 CTE students met with 70 local employers to discuss full-time and summer job opportunities.
The event was held March 15 at the John C. Magnus Center in Clare, home to four of CTE’s ten programs.“It’s an opportunity for our students to show off their skill sets, and for employers to meet their future employees,” said CTE Director Eric Johnson. “Students have demonstrations, projects and work samples for employers to see and spur conversations that hopefully lead to employment.”
Employers were impressed. In some cases, students were offered jobs on the spot.
“This event has been very successful,” Johnson said. “We’ve had several students who have walked away with multiple job offers. One student I spoke with received six offers, and he’s having a hard time deciding which one to take.”
Laurissa Brushaber, Human Resources Coordinator for Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, found what she expected.
“Most of them have been very well prepared, very professional, shaking my hand, introducing themselves, going right into telling me about their program, what they’ve accomplished, what they’re interested in and looking for after graduation,” Brushaber said. “Honestly, I wasn’t really into CTE when I was in high school and I kind of wish I would’ve been, because seeing how prepared they are for their age, it’s really good.”
For Corrie Groth, a camping director for the Boy Scouts of America who was looking for help at Camp Rotary this summer, the fair was a welcome change on the recruiting trail.
“I’m used to going to job fairs all over the state where we sit and hope that people come and talk to us,” Groth said. “But this was kind of neat. It was cool to go around and have the students kind of showcase what they’re doing. You can tell the different skills that they’ve been working on. It was really interesting to hear about what their interests are and what they’re learning in CTE.”
For some CTE students, the fair couldn’t have gone much better.
“I expected maybe a couple businesses to show up and maybe talk to a couple people,” said Gladwin Senior Lilly Wright, a CTE Criminal Justice student. “But the reality was I had a lot of people come up and talk to me. I got a lot of offers and I’m looking at some of these for a job, which I didn’t expect. It’s really exciting now that I have more leads and I can actually get a job out of this.”
For Farwell Senior Jacob Jarczynski, who’s studied in the CTE Construction Trades and Welding Technology programs the past two years, meeting with employers was self-affirming.
“It was a lot of fun,” Jarczynski said. “I met with a lot of cool companies that would benefit me and what I want to go into. I felt like I was really prepared. Doing Welding last year and Construction this year, I want to go into building trades, obviously, and I feel like I’m very prepared to do that.”
After not being able to put on the event for two years, Johnson said the enthusiastic reception to the Reverse Job Fair – by employers and students – was a welcome sight.
“Our CTE students have received one or two years of industry-specific training and certifications and we were confident and very proud of their skills as they met with employers,” he said. “And if you’re an employer who missed out on the opportunity to come here today, please reach out to us. We’d be happy to help introduce you to your employees of the future.”