Feb. 17—WORTHINGTON — Hundreds of Worthington High School juniors and seniors, as well as students from the Learning Center, met with representatives from more than 60 businesses and colleges Friday morning in a Southwest Minnesota Private Industry Council-sponsored Career Fair.

The students could get a free neck massage and braided hair, help themselves to chocolates and business swag like stress toy tractors and pens, and most importantly, visit with employers about potential careers available close to home.

The event is focused on providing students with information on career opportunities and educational pathways in and around southwest Minnesota, according to Krista Nelson, who co-coordinated the career fair inside the Worthington High School gymnasium.

"We really try to emphasize having people from all of the six different career pathways," Nelson said. Businesses represented everything from healthcare and manufacturing to human services, sales and marketing, military service and banking and finance. "We want to show the students that there's ... a variety of different jobs in southwest Minnesota. A lot of times, they don't know what jobs are out there."

Many high school juniors are at the point of deciding what they might want to do for a career, and having multiple types of businesses represented at the fair perhaps sparked interest in a particular field of study.

Junior Enas Qaembek, for instance, knows that she wants to go into the medical field, but beyond that, she isn't sure just what type of job is best for her.

"I saw a lot of places I can go and get some experience before I go to medical school," she said. "I think it will help narrow that down."

Both Sanford and Avera were represented at the career fair, as were some area hospitals, long-term care facilities and assisted living businesses — all of whom are searching for employees interested in human care. Meanwhile, the animal and agricultural industries were also well represented.

Natalie Morris, a talent advisor with Merck, was encouraging students to text animalhealth to 4844 for information about career opportunities with the company, which boasts sites around the world, including in Worthington.

"We make vaccines for companion animals and livestock (in Worthington) that we distribute all over the world," Morris said. "Some of the positions we have available are operations technician roles that only require a minimum education of a high school diploma, and there's lots of room for growth."

Merck currently has seven openings for operations technicians, who work on a line filling vials with vaccines and freeze-drying them. The company offers tuition reimbursement as well as benefits effective Day One of employment, Morris said. The Worthington facility has 73 employees, and hoped to add to that with some of the connections they made with students on Friday.

At the Bedford Industries booth, talent specialist Maggie Steinkamp and HR generalist Juan Villegas were enjoying their visits with students, many of whom were intrigued by the manufacturing products and the array of job opportunities available at the family-owned company most known for making twist ties.

"We're just trying to let students know what opportunities are there for them," Steinkamp said.

The Worthington-based company hires individuals to work in manufacturing, electrical, building maintenance, marketing and sales, and human resources.

"Everything happens in-house at Bedford, which is so great for our area," said Villegas. "We don't have a lot of family-owned companies on a larger scale, and that's exactly what Bedford is. We're excited to be here and provide these opportunities for students in the future."

Steinkamp said since the company does a lot of promoting from within, the greatest number of job openings are in production.

"We are also starting to implement some internship programs as well for college students," she said. "And we will set up some job shadowing as well.

"If students want to go to college at Minnesota West and work at the same time, Bedford offers tuition assistance and we have different, flexible shifts so they can work around their school schedule," Steinkamp said.

The Southwest Minnesota Private Industry Council partners with numerous area businesses to provide paid internships to students, and Nelson said a new program is being launched this year in collaboration with Nobles County. The Nobles County Board of Commissioners has approved a summer internship program for graduates from schools in Nobles County, with interns hired by local businesses.

"There's so many awesome opportunities around here that students maybe aren't aware of," Nelson said.

For Emily Soto, a junior, and Britany Ramirez, a senior, Friday's Career Fair gave them options to consider.

"I'm looking for colleges I can apply to and seeing all of the cool careers that they have here," shared Soto, who was particularly interested in the healthcare booths operated by Avera and Sanford. She's considering going into entrepreneurship or becoming a pediatrician.

Ramirez, meanwhile, was looking for scholarship opportunities. She wants to be a nurse, and has already been accepted at Minnesota West Community & Technical College.

"I'm planning to apply at Sanford so I can work there and get more experience," she said.

Ramirez and Soto shared their thoughts while getting their hair done at the Avalon School of Cosmetology booth. Avalon instructor Brittany Schroeder said there was a lot of interest from students in pursuing their education at the Worthington school.

"We offer a couple cosmetology programs, one to be licensed in Minnesota — the 1550 program," Schroeder said. Their 2100 program is for individuals who want a multi-state licensure. It takes students between 10 months and a year to complete the 1550 program, or about a year and a half to complete the 2100 program. There's also a nail technician program that is about four months long.

"We start (classes) monthly, and we are year-round," Schroeder said. "We have salons calling us all the time looking for stylists, so there's lots of opportunities."

Businesses interested in more information from Southwest Minnesota Private Industry Council about offering internships should contact the Worthington office at (507) 295-5020.