The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

LABOUR director Robert Farquharson said the Labour on the Blocks 2.0 Job Fair, which had over 1,500 attendees, saw many students and the job seekers granted opportunities for employment.

The department’s job fair held Saturday started at 9am at Anatol Rodgers High School.

The event at the opening had hundreds of people in lines outside the school on Faith Avenue waiting to be let through the gates.

Mr Farquharson said yesterday that the number of persons that showed up at the job fair, which turned out to be “a huge success”, indicated the number of persons struggling in the country, especially in the communities of South Beach, Carmichael and Southern Shores.

“The job fair went extremely well,” he said. “We had a little over 1,500 people show up and were registered for the job fair.

“I can say definitely some persons were hired and definitely more people will be hired on Monday pending presentation of identification and resumes and police record and stuff like that,” he said.

“Certainly it is the largest job fair we’ve had so far,” Mr Farquharson said.

He added: “People are now actively seeking gainful employment opportunities and I think it had a lot to do with our marketing plan and the fact that we took the job fair in the heart of those communities.”

The labour director said the new initiatives that the department introduced with the job fair included assistance with new work clothing at all Department of Labour locations and an upgraded training programme along with dual enrollment for high school students to earn certifications.

 “I can say that I’m extremely pleased not only with the quality of persons that attended the job fair, but also the young people who attended. And the young men in particular.

 “We had people come dressed with proper attire, looking smart and participating in the interviews.

 Additionally, we had a number of students who responded to our plea for participation in the dual-enrollment programme at BTVI and the national training agency. It went extremely well.”

Over 45 companies were present at Saturday’s job fair, including some nine hotels and other companies, including Baha Mar, Atlantis, Blue Lagoon, Ocean Club, Commonwealth Brewery, SMG construction, Cavalier cruise line, Disney cruise line, various banks, Sbarro, John Bull, Wendy’s, Kentucky, Bamboo Shack, and other businesses in all sectors, Mr Farquharson said.