SEDC debuts first ever virtual job fair today

SEDC debuts first ever virtual job fair today Main Photo

20 Aug 2020


news, SEDC, workforce

Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today

Cindy Aguirre

 

(Seguin) — Like most other things these days, attending a job fair can also now be tackled from the comfort of your own home. Providing that opportunity today is the Seguin Economic Development Corporation. The SEDC is inviting job seekers to log in to this afternoon’s (Thursday) Virtual Job Fair.

Josh Schneuker, SEDC executive director, says his team wanted a way to better connect residents with local employers.

“Back I believe it was mid-July, we actually partnered with Workforce Solutions Alamo. They hosted a virtual job fair for a few Seguin employers and like everything nowadays, it was the first time that we had ever even heard of a virtual job fair so we got involved in that and just kind of learned the ropes and it seemed like given everything going on with social distancing and not being able to have large scaled events, it seemed like the best way that we could get employers connected with job seekers. So, really over the past couple of weeks, activity with our employers here in the community and their hiring efforts have really picked up substantially so we really determined the need for a virtual job fair and made the decision that we were going to go along with hosting our own and working with our employers to get a lot of their positions filled up as soon as we can,” said Schneuker.

Schneuker says participating is easy plus job seekers this week will get to hear from Tyson, Guadalupe Regional Medical Center, Caterpillar and Vitesco Technologies. He says they’ll talk about their company’s culture, benefits plus more about their open positions.

“Really, the way it goes is we keep it very intimate. We only have four businesses participating this week in our job fair and they’ll have an opportunity to introduce themselves, introduce their company, talk a little bit about the positions that they are hiring for at the moment and then provide those who are on the virtual job fair with instructions on how to apply for those jobs so those in attendance can also ask questions directly to the companies during the virtual job fair but it’s really just kind of a neat, very time effective and efficient way to try to connect our employers with job seekers during these strange times,” said Schneuker.

Schneuker says whether it’s at home or at the local library, the city is making it easy for people to join this week’s virtual job fair. He says looking for a job is already a stressful event and hopes that this virtual route will not only lessen that stress but will also help people feel safe.

“The Seguin Library, of course, has access to the internet and computers and things like that. Our Workforce Solutions Alamo Career Center here in Seguin can also help connect and help out folks out there as well. We are really hoping that we can get back to some sort of in-person job fair where there is a really high demand to hire folks right now and this is one way to try our best to work with our employers to fill those positions but the way that we know has really been most effective has been the in-person job fair so we are thinking about ways in which we might be able to get back to that in a fairly short order but for the time being, virtual is the safest bet at the moment,” said Schneuker.

Registration for the job fair can be found on the Seguin Economic Development Corporation’s Facebook page. Once registered, participants will receive an email with instructions for logging into the job fair. Again, the virtual job fair will be held today from 2 to 3 p.m.

Read the article on SeguinToday.com