Chamber, High School Partnering on Youth Job Fair

The Chamber of Commerce has again partnered with the Pagosa Springs High School to host a Youth Job Fair on Friday, May 6.

Local businesses can attend and recruit for summer employment, intern programs or even longer term employment opportunities for those students graduating from High School. Due to COVID circumstances, the Job Fair has not been held for several years, so the Chamber is excited to get back into helping our businesses recruit workforce. This is a good opportunity for our youth to look for employment opportunities in one location. It is recommended that you bring several people to the Job Fair so that one person can speak with interested students and one person can help students fill out job applications, schedule future interviews or just be on hand to answer questions about your business.

There will be several businesses on hand that are looking to recruit students for longer term employment opportunities. There businesses want to round out their staffing levels and are willing to train and work with students. Parents – please pass on the information regarding this hiring fair to your children. While the word is getting out around school, please make sure they know of this Job Fair and come prepared to look at a variety of workforce options for the summer and longer term.

For our business community, if you are interested in having a presence at the Job Fair, please contact the Chamber at (970) 264-2360 to reserve your place. Businesses can begin their set-up at 1:00pm and the Job Fair will begin around 1:45pm when the students are released from classes. The Job Fair will go until about 2:45 or until all the students have been accommodated. Students and parents – don’t have your child miss this Youth Job Fair on May 6 at the High School and get hired now for the summer.

Another hiring opportunity is the Careers Symposium Event occurring on Friday, April 29 at the Sky Ute Casino. This hiring event is dedicated to the building trades including subcontracting building entities. Building Trade Schools from the 5 Southwest counties will be on hand with their students to demonstrate skills and be available for interviews. If you are a business in the building trades and are looking for employees, not only for the summer but especially for long-term, it might behoove you to attend this symposium.

We hope that parents will extend this information to their children and have them become engaged in the Job Fair. We also hope our business community takes advantage of this job fair opportunity to get in touch with our young adults and get some hiring done for the summer and find some longer-term commitments.

Mary Jo Coulehan

Mary Jo Coulehan is Executive Director of the Pagosa Springs Chamber of Commerce, and also serves on a number of local and state boards.