Career expo seeks to connect students with future employers
Aug. 7—The Worlds of Work career expo is coming to Cullman County this fall, and organizers are looking for local exhibitors and volunteers to help youth get a hands-on look at careers available in the area.
The career fair, set to take place at Wallace State Community College on Sept. 22-23, will provide interactive opportunities for around 3,000 of the county's students to see the different worlds of opportunity that the area has to offer, said Cullman Economic Development Agency Retail & Workforce Development Manager Susan Eller.
The fair is usually meant for eight-graders, but Worlds of Work fair was canceled for the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years, so this year's event will include eight-graders as well as the ninth- and tenth-graders who missed out on the last two years, she said.
Students in those grades from all of the public and private schools in the county, as well as homeschooled students, will be able to come to the expo to get a first-hand look at what the area has to offer for their future careers, she said.
Eller said career fairs in the past have sent students around to different booths where a speaker told them about their jobs, but the Worlds of Work expo will let kids learn more about the potential careers while actually taking part in some aspect of the job.
"An activity will occur at each booth instead of just standing there and talking to somebody," she said.
The career expo will be broken up into different "worlds," that will include agriculture, construction, business, communications, cyber security and information technology, utilities, healthcare, manufacturing, public safety and transportation.
The different worlds of work on display at the fair will provide different opportunities for students to get a feel for the job, so activities could include climbing into a tractor in the agricultural world, performing CPR at an exhibit in the healthcare world or sorting parts on an assembly line in the manufacturing world.
The county's career tech programs will also be spread out in the different worlds for students to talk to advisors to see what the education requirements and qualifications needed to go into any particular field, and how they can start planning to get there once they graduate, said North AlabamaWorks Project Manager Johnita Romine.
"The student can see a pathway into a career," she said. "If they want to go work for a particular company, they know the career tech program they would have to go through in order to work for that company."
Getting all of those worlds on display does require the participation of local businesses, and all of the county's organizations and businesses are invited to take part and share the ins and outs of their fields while getting an early start in recruiting their future workforce, Eller said.
Many students think that they need to leave the area to find a good job, but with the low unemployment rates that Cullman County has seen in recent years, the jobs in the area have increased their pay rates and benefits packages to be more competitive, she said.
Having the career fair will let the students see all of the different opportunities that are available right here in Cullman County, Eller said.
"We want to make our future workers aware of what is in their community," she said.
She said the inclusion of ninth and tenth grades this year also means that there will be a lot more students coming through the two-day expo, so there will be more volunteers needed to help organize the students and bring the groups through each world of work.
There are also sponsorship opportunities available for companies or organizations that want to help the expo bring in the area's students to learn more about their future career options.
For information about sponsoring the event, being an exhibitor or volunteering, visit northalabamaworks.com/wow/2021-cullman-wow/
For further information contact Romine at jromine@northalabamaworks.com
The Worlds of Work fair is being brought to Cullman County through a partnership between North AlabamaWorks, the Cullman County School System, the Cullman City School System, the Cullman Economic Development Agency, the Cullman County Industrial Development Board, Cullman County Economic Development, the Cullman County Industrial Development Authority, the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce and Wallace State Community College.
