About 800 students from high schools county-wide were preparing for their futures Tuesday when they attended the fifth annual Schuylkill County Career Fair in the Pottsville Area School District's Martz Hall.
The event was hosted by the Northeast Pa. Manufacturers and Employers Council and included students from North Schuylkill, Pine Grove Area, Shenandoah Valley, Blue Mountain, Mahanoy Area, Tamaqua Area, Minersville Area and Pottsville Area high schools and Schuylkill Intermediate Unit 29.
Darlene J. Robbins, president of the council, said Tuesday that while some of the booths were accepting applications for summer or full-time employment, others were telling students the types of job openings they expect to have in the future, such as engineers, and how to prepare.
The fair was split into three sections with the first for colleges and education providers, the second for law enforcement, government, military, nonprofits and career services, while the last was for manufacturing, business and logistics.
There were about 35 vendors in attendance.
"To compete globally, you need the workforce," Robbins said. "It's really an educational process by every vendor in here."
As far as the students attending, all were looking for different things.
Gannon Sukeenn, a junior at Minersville, said he was looking to join the Army, while Minersville juniors Sydney Hill and Mark Helfin were hoping to attend college.
"I hope to go to college after I graduate to Cedar Crest College in Allentown," Hill said. "I want to become a hospice nurse."
While Helfin didn't know exactly what he wanted to do, he said he wanted to do something artistic and enjoys writing.
"I want to apply to college around here," Helfin said.
One of the education providers in attendance was Schuylkill Technology Center.
Kurt Lynch, director of vocational education, and Veronica M. Kneal, assistant director of vocational education, said that they were talking to students about the careers available and the programs offered at Schuylkill Technology Center.
Lynch said that they offer secondary and post-secondary education and that they had teachers coming throughout the day to highlight some of the different programs, such as one showing a robot.
Kneal said that there are multiple disciplines in programs of study that are in architecture and construction technology, human services, information technology, manufacturing, marketing and service and transportation, distribution and logistics.
"We're trying to keep kids in Schuylkill County interested in careers because there's a lot of money to be made in the tech field and not every kid has to go to college to get the money," Lynch said.
He also said that once a student completes a three-year program, they get a certificate of completion and can go directly into the workforce, but can also earn college credits for later.
"We're totally articulated so that when they leave us, whatever program they're in, we have colleges that they can fall right into, whether it be a two- or four-year college," Lynch said.
While there were plenty of educators attending, among those looking to hire employees were Aerotek, Hamburg, with immediate openings for equipment technicians, an envelope adjuster, machine operators and laser operators, and Environmental Stoneworks, Orwigsburg, which is hiring office professionals, CDL A drivers, equipment operators, floor associates and installers.
There were also representatives in attendance from the Luzerne/Schuylkill County Workforce Investment Board that were trying to help students figure out their interests.
"We are here giving information about the logistics, transportation and food processing industry partnerships," said Marla Doddo, youth services manager. "What we're doing with the students is we're giving them this interest inventory, which they check off what their interests are, they total them and then whatever the letter is, they flip it over, put their three highest choices. It gives possible applications they might consider."
Doddo said that while the interest inventory was being done with high school students at the fair, which gives them choices for careers based on their interests, it could be done with middle school-aged students.
"Those are the years they're really starting to think about careers and what they want to do and this comes from the Pennsylvania Career Guide," Doddo said.
According to Doddo, school districts in Pennsylvania are now mandated by career standards so many students must reach different objectives by certain grade levels and each school district is supposed to have some sort of career awareness program in place.