Hundreds of young job seekers frequented the halls of Gateway Community & Technical College’s Florence campus in search of valuable career opportunities.
Gateway, in conjunction with the Northern Kentucky Area Development District, hosted the NKY Young Talent Job Fair on Sept. 24 to enable local companies to connect directly with job seekers. Students from Gateway, Northern Kentucky University, and high schools in Northern Kentucky, such as Conner, Holmes, and Ludlow, were all present.
Caitlin Fugate, the workforce development director at the NKADD, told LINK nky the job fair was primarily for job seekers either in high school, college or that are recent college graduates. For Fugate, the opportunity for students and young adults to meet with potential employers in a one-on-one setting is mutually beneficial for both parties.
“Today, our target audience is ages 16 to 24, but of course, anybody’s welcome in our region,” Fugate said. “We have hundreds of young adults that are seeking employers, and we think having the opportunity to meet with employers one-on-one and experience that handshake and that one-on-one conversation is what’s important.”
Dozens of local companies set up booths, including the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Walsh-Kokosing, Kenton County Detention Center, Brighton Center, Boone County Schools, Keller Williams, Nucor Steel in Gallatin County, Cintas and St. Elizabeth Healthcare, among others.
Many of the students and young adults in attendance were presented with immediate opportunities, such as the potential to get hired on the spot. The job fair offered attendees access to job coaches for on-site résumé assistance and mock interviews, aiming to bring together employers, nonprofit organizations and career training resources in one location.
Fugate said she wanted companies from the most important industries in Greater Cincinnati represented at the job fair, such as logistics, healthcare, construction and manufacturing.
“Tons of our community organizations come out to support us, because at the end of the day, if the youth need transportation, or they need dollars, or they have a barrier to get to that employment, we want to get that taken care of so that they’re successful at whatever employer they go to.”
One such company was Atkins & Pearce, a braided textile manufacturer located in south Covington, that was looking to hire 10 employees immediately. Operations Manager Jeremy Mattingly said that the job fair was a prime opportunity to introduce students to the company and its brand.
“The purpose of coming here was to introduce our company to the students, and so that, whether we’re working with them as they’re going through school, or an option for when they’re outside of school–that’s why we’re here, to get the exposure,” Mattingly said.
Ben Burton, the Trades to Success Career Navigator at the Brighton Center, stated that his role’s mission aligned with that of the job fair. In his roles, Burton helps young adults explore careers and skilled trades to help them determine what they might be interested in pursuing in the long term.
The Brighton Center had a booth at the job fair where Burton introduced attendees to the organization’s career center services, including career skill development, resume and cover letter assistance, and financial wellness training.
“The first day I started there, my boss described it to me as, we want to teach somebody to fish, but in order to do that, while they’re learning, we might have to feed them fish for a while,” he said. “It’s about covering all those needs so that they can eventually get themselves to a point of self-sufficiency.”
