Tuesday, September 22, 2009 almost 400 people participated in the Life Long Learning of Huntington County’s Career Fair. Held in the hallways, auditorium and classrooms by the Field House, the participants first went to an opening session with Mr. Mark Wickersham of Huntington County United Economic Development who gave the students four points to keep in mind during their education process. After the opening session there were 10 “pods” that they could visit. The pods covered the areas of: Educational Resources, Government, Social Services, Manufacturing, Financial Services, Professional Services, Agriculture, Health Services, Interviewing and Completing Job Applications. Our future employees had time to visit three pods where they could learn about the career paths for those areas. Volunteers from the community manned the booths so that those taking part could actually talk with those actively involved in the corresponding careers.

The goal of the career fair was to focus the thoughts of the students and participants on the things that they need to do to prepare for a career in specific areas. Further, since they had a chance to ask questions directly of people involved in their career fields, they could decide whether or not their particular career choices are valid choices for the students. WorkOne Northeast manned the pods dealing with job applications and job interviews. The Application pod gave the attendees the chance to see how to correctly and quickly complete written job applications and to learn about the three different types of job applications in use today. The Interviewing pod permitted those who attended to participate in a mock job interview using correct techniques and bad techniques.

After Huntington North High School dismissed, the Career Fair was opened to adults and home schooled students. They could attend the same opening presentation given by Mr. Wickersham then visit briefly with any of the eight pods. Additionally, they took part in the WorkOne presentations on Job Applications and Interviewing.

Life Long Learning of Huntington County (LLLHC) is a non-profit Board whose mission is to create, implement, evaluate, promote and encourage a culture of lifelong learning in Huntington County, Indiana and the surrounding areas. To accomplish their mission LLLHC has a collaboration of Huntington Community Organizations of which the Huntington Chamber of Commerce is one. The Career Fair was Chaired by Sandy Seacott of Teachers Credit Union, Linda Aldridge of the Purdue Extension Service and Bob Brown with the Chamber.