Chamber and Schools Partner Again to Hold High School Career Fair
Wednesday April 21, 2010
Kingston, TN - More than 500 high school juniors from all five Roane County high schools will take part in a ‘Career Exploration Day' on Friday, April 23 at Roane State Community College. The students will be professionally dressed and prepared with resumes, handshakes, notepads and questions for representatives from 35 different businesses to talk about their futures.
The career fair is an effort of the Roane County Chamber of Commerce's Education Affairs Committee and the Roane County Schools' teachers and counselors. This is the second year the career fair is being held for Roane County students.
"Our first-ever career fair last year was a great success because of the attitude of our school system officials, who embraced the program from the beginning," said Leslie Henderson, President of the Roane Alliance.
"Dr. Toni McGriff and Dr. Joe Parker decided early on that this would be mandatory both for the students' attendance, as well as for the teachers who were tasked to prepare them for the day.
"For example, last year a Harriman High School guidance counselor provided dozens of neckties, which he personally helped some of the boys tie for the first time in their lives. A teacher at Rockwood High School had each and every student in the class come to her doorway on the day of the fair to get a ‘grade' on their appearance."
To prepare for the fair, the students receive instruction in English class about preparing resumes, interviewing, and appropriate dress. The effectiveness of the instruction by the teachers was noted by participating businesses last year. Among the comments were:
- "The students arrived ‘dressed to impress' and prepared to ask questions."
- "We had a wonderful time and enjoyed interacting with the students."
- "Students were well behaved, well informed and well prepared."
- "They ask good questions, well mannered - great students."
- "The students were very well prepared! Much more than at other career fairs!"
"We are fortunate that many Roane County businesses want to help our students learn about career options and the educational requirements necessary to be successful in the workplace," says Allen Lutz, Education and Workforce Development Specialist for the Roane Alliance. "It helps them as well, exposing the high school juniors to their business as an employment option as those students are thinking through their career choices.
"To help the students identify which businesses they want to visit during the fair," Lutz said. "The Roane Alliance has a web page that lists the business participants and information about some of the jobs within the companies." The web page is www.RoaneAlliance.org/Career-Exploration.html.
The Career Exploration Day is sponsored by The Roane Alliance and its partner, the Roane County Chamber of Commerce; the Roane County Schools and Roane State Community College. The event is one of several annual activities launched by The Alliance's "Education Matters!" initiative, which is funded by the Knoxville Oak Ridge Innovation Valley - a regional economic development organization.
The Roane Alliance is Roane County's economic development organization and consists of both public and private organizations, including the Roane County Chamber of Commerce, the Roane County Industrial Development Board, and the Roane County Visitors Bureau.
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