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Henrico County Public Schools' Career and Technical Education program teamed up with the Home Building Association of Richmond to host a virtual job fair for Henrico County students July 7.
Participating businesses gave 30-minute presentations to the students via a Zoom call. The attending businesses included Eastern Engineered Wood Products, James River Exteriors, Virginia Building and Remodeling, Homestead Building Supplies and Closet Factory. The businesses are all in the local residential construction industry.
“These are the employers who have the need for hiring right now,” said Danna Markland, CEO of the Home Building Association of Richmond said. Residential construction is one of the largest private sector contributors to Virginia’s economy, Markland said.
“We still have this very large gap in the workforce – it is one of the top issues being able to meet the supply and demand, we need to recruit directly from our local high schools in order to solve that,” Markland said.
The CTE program and the Home Building Association of Richmond said that making the event virtual via Zoom call was important to the health and safety of the businesses and students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mac R. Beaton, the director of the Career and Technical Education program, came up with the virtual job fair. According to Beaton, the primary focus is getting the businesses in front of the students, and the CTE program’s best option is to create a safe virtual face to face experience. The program has been doing extensive virtual instruction for quite some time now, so the technology and the know-how is not out of reach, Beaton said.
“For young people that have the initiative, this is a great way to get into that market and start to see what’s out there without having to drive from Point A to Point B to Point C and sitting down and meeting with people,” Beaton said.
"The students brought their 'A'-game," said Bev Cocke, workforce and career development specialist for Henrico Schools. "They asked really probing questions today."
Tuesday’s virtual job fair meeting is just the first of several planned between Home Building Association of Richmond and CTE.
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