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Middle school students in Kosciusko County will be able to learn about job opportunities available locally at the first-ever Middle School Career Fair April 17.
Sponsored by the Workforce Development Group of the Warsaw/Kosciusko County Chamber of Commerce's Education Steering Committee, the career fair will give middle-schoolers an idea of what will be expected of them for careers that don't require a four-year college education.
Why a middle school career fair? Why not wait until high school?
"The middle school student is the one who's got to select his schedule for four years in high school," said Joe Banks, chairman of the committee for building awareness of vocational careers.
"There's an awareness that the poor 13-year-old is faced with an enormous task. This is giving them some tools to think it through with.
"Quite often when they think of careers, they think of college programs," he said. "We want them to think about careers that require specialized education."
The career fair will feature 21 exhibitors, each of which is a company or organization that will have a representative present to talk to the kids and answer questions. Some of the exhibitors are R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., Maple Leaf Farms, all the orthopedic companies, Dalton Foundries, Petro Brothers and the Times-Union.
Other organizations include Warsaw police and fire departments, Kosciusko Community Hospital and the Carpenters' Union.
Approximately 1,300 middle school students will attend the career fair during the school day and will be brought one school at a time to the Home and Family Arts Building at the Kosciusko County Fairgrounds.
Each student attending the career fair will have picked three careers he or she is interested in, and will visit those exhibitors while that middle school is at the fair. If there is any time left, the student may visit other exhibitors.
As they leave the building to return to school, students will be handed a packet of information that will include lists of classes necessary for all the careers at the fair, recommended courses of study and skills needed for the various jobs.
Banks said schools tend not to emphasize technical jobs, so "when students first get out of school, students aren't really thinking about these jobs - they're thinking technical jobs are beneath them."
He also said a 1998 Chamber survey of local business and industry projected 12,000 new jobs in this area between 1998 and 2008. Of that 12,000, only approximately 900 required four-year college degrees, and 7,000 required 28 months of specialized education or less.
"For every person at the top there are 10 or 20 in the technical area," he said.
Students will visit between 8:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.; parents and community members may visit the same exhibitors at the fairgrounds from 6 to 8 p.m.
