Career showcase shows teens some of the myriad local job opportunities
OAK HARBOR - The Ottawa County Career Showcase, now in its ninth year, was held at a new location and with a new career diagnostic tool but the same focus: to expose area high school juniors to the myriad jobs available in the county.
About 450 students from all six school districts traveled to the Ottawa County Fairgrounds for the Oct. 4 event, which featured about 25 businesses representing dozens of careers. The event, which is hosted by Ottawa County Business Advisory Council (BAC), has welcomed over 4,000 students since its inception in 2014.
For the first time, participating schools administered the YouScience Aptitude and Career Discovery program to gauge students’ interest and skills. BAC utilized data from the program to connect students with corresponding businesses at Career Showcase.
YouScience brain games help determine what kids like
“YouScience is a series of brain games that helps determine what they like and how they interact with people. It shows their aptitude and interest,” said Katherine Adams, manager of workforce and career exploration for Ottawa County Improvement Corporation.
Adams said BAC was surprised by the results.
“We found the students' aptitude usually didn’t match their interests. We discovered we have a population of students who have aptitude in manufacturing, information technology and agriculture, but their interests lie in teaching, social work and careers in firefighting or EMS,” Adams said.
The Career Showcase helped students tie their aptitude to their interests by exposing them to opportunities they didn’t know existed and engaging in conversations about real-world jobs.
“It helps them better visualize what advanced manufacturing looks like or what a career in agriculture looks like. They just think of an assembly line or a farmer on a tractor,” Adams said.
Event aimed to have youths think outside the box
The event helped kids think outside the box and find ways to connect their career choice to local businesses.
“Who would think Magruder Hospital would have careers in architecture and construction? If a student is interested in finance, they could work for EMS because someone has to run their budget,” Adams said. “If you want to be it, you have to see it. We don’t think of all these things in our backyard.”
County's largest employers participated in showcase
Among the businesses and organizations participating in the Career Showcase were Northern Manufacturing, Avery Denison, Genoa Bank, and Materion, which shared job opportunities with students planning to earn four-year degrees, earn two-year degrees, train in a skilled trade, or seek employment right out of high school.
“We are the county’s largest employer. We have over 700 employees at our Elmore site,” said Materion Human Resources Director Emily Rockwell. “We have pretty much any career opportunity you could think of. We want people to know there are a lot of opportunities here in Ottawa County.”
Students heard about education, wildlife and surveying careers with the OSS Soil and Water District; golf, marina and hospitality careers at Catawba Island Club; and human service and technology careers at the Wellness Project.
Michael W. Wilson II of The Wellness Project, a mental health resource center in Port Clinton, recorded interviews with students at the Career Showcase that will be used in future podcasts. His booth impacted a lot of students, including Port Clinton junior, Camille Baker.
“I learned about different ways you can help with mental health, and he talked to us about his podcast,” Baker said.
Port Clinton junior Lydia Roberts said the Wellness Project booth was one of her favorite stops at the event.
“I thought it was really cool — all the podcast stuff he does. Podcasting really interests me, so I was drawn to that,” Roberts said.
Contact correspondent Sheri Trusty at sheritrusty4@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Port Clinton News Herald: Employers help students find careers that match their skills, aptitude
