|
 The Workforce Readiness Expo will take place at Lincoln Christian Church.
This event is NOT a job fair. The chamber is hoping to accomplish
two things with the annual Workforce Readiness Expo. One, the event
is to help prepare
local high school students in Logan County for the next step,
whatever that next step would be for them. Second, with the business
expo portion of this event, the chamber is hoping to show Logan
County youth that there are viable careers in Logan County, so they
don't have to leave to make a good living. "Instead of job shadowing
just one career, this event equips students with needed skills while
exposing them to numerous local occupations," says Kristi Powell, of
Heartland Community College and a committee member.
 For the 2014
event, the workshops being offered this year are based
around one theme — passion. There will be three different workshops
designed to teach students about making a career out of their
passion. The workshops being offered are "Professionally Presenting
Your Passion," "Preparing for your Passion" and "Getting Paid for
Your Passion." The "Getting Paid for Your Passion" workshop will
feature three panelists who will share their experience with making
careers out of their passion.
Panelists for this workshop will be Jackie Pavlik,
personal trainer with Lincoln
Park District; Seth Goodman, owner of ME Realty;
and John Guzzardo, owner of Guzzardo's Italian Villa will give his
perspective on taking over the family business.
This year's keynote speaker to open the event will be Patrick
Doolin, owner of Integrity Data.
Students had the opportunity to
choose between one the four career panels that will run all day with
topics on agriculture, business, education and health care. These
four categories represent Logan County's largest employers.
This year the event will be attended by high school
seniors from Lincoln Community High School, Mount Pulaski and
Hartsburg-Emden High School.
[to top of second column] |
Students were engaged early on to help prepare them for this
day. In addition to filling out a questionnaire on what career
panel they want to attend, students helped develop the questions
the moderator will be asking the panelists. Students were given
informational materials in advance of the event, and they sat in on
an assembly to hear about details of the event to help better
prepare them to take advantage of the unique opportunity being
given to them through the Workforce Readiness Expo.
"We are hoping that this one-day event, held in partnership with
many organizations and businesses in our community, will provide
high school seniors the skills they need to enter the job
market and give students the opportunity to engage with local
business leaders that can help guide them on a career path,"
said Andi Hake, executive director of the Lincoln/Logan County
Chamber of Commerce.
The event will be at Lincoln Christian Church from 8 a.m.
to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Contact the chamber office
for more details at 217-735-2385 or
chamber@lincolnillinois.com.
The Workforce Readiness Expo directly reflects the mission of
the chamber to advocate, support and unify local businesses for
the prosperity of Logan County.
[Text from file received from
the Lincoln/Logan County
Chamber of Commerce]
 |
