The City of Guelph is working with the Career Education Council and several community partners to host a comprehensive job fair open for the entire community.
“It’s going to be epic,” says city economic development officer Christine Chapman.
The event is aimed at connecting the talent available in Guelph and surrounding areas to local employers who are hiring for part-time, full-time and seasonal positions.
Scheduled for May 14 between 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m at The Grand Guelph Banquet and Event Centre, the event will have approximately 150 employers across 60 fields which include hospitality, retail, manufacturing, agriculture, information and communications technology software among others.
“It brings together an awful lot of community partners that are already doing good work out there related to job fairs but just not just job fair,” says Chapman adding that the event will touch on job training and job placement as well.
“It’s bringing all of that expertise together in order to help promote the job fair.”
She says the more career interactions that can be made at a job fair, the more successful it is.
Kelly Schafer, executive director of non-profit organization, Career Education Council says while the CEC held a youth employment job fair with community partner three years ago, the Guelph Works Epic Job fair is open to anyone in the region 15 years of age or older.
“What we came to realize was that the best way to have an event that serves employers and their needs is to have it open to everyone so that they can have their seasonal positions available and they can also recruit career positions or full-time positions,” says Schafer adding that the organization built upon that event each year following its success.
The job fair is currently being promoted in highschools and post-secondary institutions.
Schafter says some of the priorities of the Career Education Council are workplace readiness and the establishment of connections between employers and their future employees.
“In a lot of our programs, there's a focus on youth in that we would love them to be prepared and skilled in their workplace future,” says Schafer.
She says some employers will look for one position to fill and some will look for hundreds.
It all depends on if the right people show up she says.
Schafer says a list of employers participating in the event will be available within a month. The deadline for employers to apply for the job fair is April 30.
With the event just two months away, organizers say they are monitoring the COVID-19 situation and have not cancelled any plans for the event.
