The Hire Up the Coast Spring Job Fair had a successful turnout of about 120 job seekers last Saturday (April 11) at the Sechelt Indian Band Hall.
Fifteen Coast businesses and two training institutions had booths set up at the event while several others who were unable to attend provided information through event organizers from the Open Door Group, Work BC, and Sunshine Coast Tourism.
“Our purpose for being here is to sponsor the event and provide an opportunity for local job seekers on the Coast to network with local employers and find out about jobs in demand,” said Stephanie Warren, program director for Open Door Group.
Celia Robben, president of Sunshine Coast Tourism, explained that the job fair was not just about getting a job.
“It’s a way to come and talk to a variety of businesses about career planning,” she said. “Types of jobs you don’t realize exist because you don’t see them in front of you in a store.”
Seven out of the 15 jobs showcased were in the hospitality and tourism sector of the job market.
“One of the reasons that Sunshine Coast Tourism was interested in sponsoring was that we have so many tourism industry businesses who do quite a bit of seasonal hiring,” said Robben.
Although many of the businesses are only interested in hiring young, seasonal workers, others at the job fair — like Coastal Craft and Primerica Financial Services — were looking to hire additions to their skilled workforce.
Warren and Robben both said that they had seen a lot of diversity in age going through.
“There have been teenagers that are coming right out of school. As well as people in their forties, fifties, and sixties,” said Robben.
“Some that I’ve talked to today have been people looking to make a transition,” Warren added. “They’ve either been laid off from a sector that is no longer employing or looking to move to the Coast. Another couple of people were injured and looking to make a transition and interested in training opportunities and what they could do here on the Coast.”
Kathie Duggan and Rick Bruner, owners of Fandango Gelato, are going into their 11th season at the Langdale Ferry Terminal. They had already collected almost 10 resumes from viable candidates in the first hour of the job fair.
“We’re definitely happy that we came,” Duggan said.
This was the second Hire Up the Coast Job Fair, and the organizers would like to see it become an annual event.
“Many of our companies are very small employers, it makes it hard to get to see a lot of resumes,” said Robben. “This was a way to bring them into one place so they could see a wide audience in one day, quickly and efficiently.”
