Employment Summit and Job Fair Linked Job Seekers and Employers through Technology and Face to Face

It was a Monster Mash-Up between technology, employers and job-seekers today at the Wenatchee Valley Employment Summit and Job Fair. 

Monster.com Creative Director Bill Bradbury kicked off the event, speaking to local business owners and organization managers gathered at the Convention Center. Monster.com is one of the largest employment websites in the world. Bradbury took the audience through the software design and functionality that helps employers find employees, and visa versa at Monster.com. 

The software that fuels Monster is called 6Sense, and Washington’s Employment Security uses it for their website, explained the second speaker of the morning, Chad Pearson of Employment Security. The website WorkSourceWA.com provides a place where employers and Washington job-seekers can find one another online. 

The purpose of the event was not only to learn about technology of employment these days, but also to bring together business, employment platforms and education. 

Wenatchee School District Career and Technical Education (CTE) Director Dennis Conger said that Washington State graduation requirements now includes one credit of CTE, and he shared the many programs and opportunities students have in CTE, including business and agriculture classes. 

Wenatchee High School Senior Vivian Noyd talked about her learning curve for business, and how an internship at the Town Toyota Center changed the vision of her future. “Thank you,” Noyd said to the crowd, “for being interested in young people.”

Diana Haglund, Wenatchee Learns Connect Coordinator and one of the organizers of the event, invited orgizations to create company profiles using the www.wenatcheelearns.com website, where they may offer work-based learning opportunities for young people, sign up to become a career coach or offer classroom presentations about their organizations.

Over 50 students from Wenatchee and Eastmont School Districts arrived later in the day to attend the Job Fair that followed the morning of speakers. Students learned to polish their job seeking skills, and met representatives from a number of businesses and organizations, along with adult job-seekers attending the job fair.

The event was sponsored by Skill Source, Wenatchee Valley Chamber of Commerce, WorkSource, CTE, Wenatchee Learns Connect and Wenatchee School District.