By Kate Shumakova [1]
BELLEVILLE – Meeting potential employers face-to-face is the first step for students finding a job in their field, said a volunteer at the Loyalist College annual Career Fair [2] held Thursday in the gymnasium.
Mariah Brough, a public relations student working at the fair, said practical experience is crucial. There is a big difference between what students can learn in class and what they can hear from the potential employer, she said.
Lyndsay Kerik, the Employment and Career Center advisor, said there are 46 employer participated in 2015 Career Fair and around 50 per cent of them are currently recruiting for full-time positions.
“We consistently have employers who come to us and say ‘I have hired a Loyalist student and I want anther one’,” she said.
According to the Loyalist College’s 2012-2013 Key Performance Indicator [3] results, which are collected in an annual survey measuring performance of the province’s 24 colleges, including graduates’ employment, more than 88 per cent of Loyalist graduates are employed within six months of graduation, that is five per cent more than provincial average.
Some employers at the Career Fair said that besides professional skills they are looking at the candidate’s personal skills.
“We are looking for individuals who have a great personality as a lot of technical skills we can actually train,” the RBC [4] recruiter Tina Hich said.
Loyalist students said they are satisfied with Career Fair’s opportunities and glad to meet with potential employers.
Loyalist College Career Fair 2015 [5] from QNet News [6] on Vimeo [7].