More than 1,100 people attended the ninth annual Careers for Everyone career fair at the Ralph Klein Centre last Tuesday.
One hundred and three exhibitors, including various colleges and law enforcement agencies, were on hand, representing more than 1,700 jobs.
“Twenty per cent of the booths are service providers or trainers. Eighty per cent of the booths are employers. That was a rocking statistic,” said Caroline Bodmer of Careers for Everyone.
“It sounds to me that our exhibitors have seen a quality of candidates that is very satisfactory this year.”
She describes the fair as being for people who are perhaps out of work, or not working in the kind of job that they want to be in. During the day, visitors ranged in age from high school students to senior citizens.
“They are all taking advantage of the various things they can learn from face-to-face conversations with people active in the industry or delivering the training that they might be looking towards,” said Bodmer.
This year, the fair is a partnership between Careers for Everyone, Olds College, Chinook's Edge School Division, Alberta Works, Service Canada and the Olds and District Chamber of Commerce.
“We have just had such good collaboration with Olds College and Chinook's Edge,” said Bodmer.
“We were really thrilled that the Olds and District Chamber of Commerce stepped forward and said they would help access some funding for some speakers.”
There were many first-time exhibitors, such as Jesse Oler from Valley Landscape Inc. Oler made the trip from Edmonton, hoping to hire Olds College landscape students.
“The day has been pretty good. We have no complaints,” he said.
“We are hoping to see a few more of the students out but the ones that we have seen, we have been impressed with.”
The fair was held during a school planning day, enabling many high school students to come with their parents and friends.
“We have the young people here that want to come and do career research,” said Bodmer.
“They may be looking for summer jobs or they might be looking for something that is two or three years down the road.”
The fair committee is thinking of holding the fair from now on during a school planning day.
“It is definitely excellent because we do not have a parking jam,” said Bodmer.
“Logistically, the space can be free for us to use because there are no games or practices going on.”
