The Learning, Earning and Living CK Career Expo and Job Fair has put Chatham-Kent on the map once again.
For the second consecutive year, the event has garnered the Economic Developers Council of Ontario (EDCO) Workforce Development and Resident Attraction – Urban Award.
The EDCO Awards of Excellence is an annual program recognizing distinctive ideas and initiatives that can become future economic development best practices. Those awarded, are viewed as leaders in Ontario’s economic development.
Audrey Ansell, C-K’s director of community culture and connections, is grateful for the support of community partners and employers who made the event a success.
“We are proud to have earned the EDCO Workforce Development and Resident Attraction – Urban Award to further spotlight Chatham-Kent as a place to learn, earn and live,” Ansell said in a media release.
The CK Career Expo and Job Fair helps showcase career pathways and serves to attract talent to position Chatham-Kent for growth. The project aims to support career planning and talent building by engaging local students from Grades 7 and up and by connecting both internal and external jobseekers and employers, digitally and in-person, to meet workforce demands.
The initiative’s key components include building workshops with employers to enhance talent attraction and retention; attracting talent by way of marketing campaigns targeting jobseekers across Southwestern Ontario and the GTA and offering hands-on learning activities at the event.
The event, held last October at the John D. Bradley Centre, engaged more than 2,400 students and 880 jobseekers, including bus tours from as far away as Peel Region.
