Job Fair for Rapides Parish Juniors and Seniors

The Rapides Parish School Board held a job fair for junior and senior high school students in the parish.  ABC 31 News’ Joel Massey has more on students elevating their future.

Tioga High School Senior Hayden Whatley said, “After high school I’m going to Acadian EMS I’m going to take an EMT course and become a certified EMT person work for Acadian.”

Whatley has a clear path he wants to take after he’s done with school but for Rapides junior and senior who are not as sure the School Board held a job fair for students to check out potential employers.  Whatley says it’s a good thing for his friends.

“I think it’s a great thing that they’re doing they’re offering so many jobs to people, sometimes kids don’t know what they’re going to do after high school.  So this is a great opportunity for them to learn about jobs see what they can do see if that’s something they would enjoy.”

Larunda Hobbs Pierce heads up career and technical education for the parish.  She says job fairs like this bridges the partnership between educators and employers.

“Rapides Parish School Board works closely with all the partners in the community, community leaders that are interested in what our workforce will look like in the future, post-secondary partners who would like to work with us such as CLTCC to bring students in to continue their education and in addition help to get them jobs during their education on the post-secondary side.”

Pierce said the job fair is something that helps keep Louisiana students in the state to join the workforce.

“We work with a lot of partners in making sure that we keep our students here.  We build what we have and we grow what we have here in Central Louisiana so it’s always important for the students to be aware of what their opportunities are and what’s available to them.  Sometimes they’re not aware of what different business and industry partners have available as far as employment.”