Subscribe to the 100% free rdnewsNOW daily newsletter!

Employers, job seekers meet at Central Alberta Career and Job Fair

Oct 18, 2018 | 12:00 PM

Local job seekers, employers and post-secondary students gathered at Red Deer College for the Central Alberta Career/Job Fair at the Cenovus Energy Learning Common on Wednesday.

The event held in partnership with the Alberta Government Ministry of Labour, also offered those in attendance a chance to seek out training opportunities to either start or upgrade their current careers.

Steve Lane, RDC Assistant Vice President Academic, Research and Student Affairs, says the event is an attempt to give students a better overview of the kinds of jobs and careers available to them and ideally hooking them up with potential employers.

“We do a lot of things with our students in terms of trying to provide a well-rounded experience but of course, finding a job at the end of their program is one of the top priorities,” says Lane. “This is one of the ways that we can try to help them meet that objective.”

He says a wide variety of local employers took part in the career/job fair.

“We’ve got people from a lot of the banks, we’ve got people from federal agencies, local industry from oil to technology, all kinds of things,” Lane states. “The best thing would be a really good match in terms of either securing employment or at least having a better sense of what kinds of jobs are at the end of a student’s career here at the college.”

Wednesday’s Career/Job Fair included 37 local employers including RBC Insurance, BDO Canada, Calfrac Well Services, STEP Energy, 2019 Canada Winter Games Host Society, Paladin Security, Central Alberta Co-op Ltd., Scotia Bank and Eagle Builders.

Donald School of Business first-year student Jamie Moreau says she’s looking to find out more about accounting options while working towards her degree.

“How to get the CPA, what type of steps to take, what type of opportunities there are,” says Moreau. “I found that I can do after my second year instead of doing all four years, just start getting it then and then move on from there and then build all the way up, so I don’t actually have to have a degree just to get in initially. People I talk to seem to love their job, so that’s helpful too.”

Fourth-year Instrumentation student Matt Smith says he attended to see what kind of opportunities are available in the area.

“I have a job that I’ve just laid off to go to school,” he explains. “I kind of work all over the place and I want to find something closer to home and Red Deer is not very far from home for me. I work up in Edmonton right now so I want to see what’s down here as I haven’t really dug into the job market around here.”