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Students explore job options
High School students attend Kirkwood job fair
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
WILLIAMSBURG — Kirkwood Workplace Learning Connection brought students and employers together Wednesday during a job fair at the Williamsburg Community Recreation Center.
Buses from Iowa County schools dropped off students at the Rec Center where they visited with Kirkwood representatives and area employers.
Jim Johnson and Benjamin Sheeler stopped by the Relion Insurance Solutions table to visit with Tim Hoffman and Brad Schaefer.
A former high school principal, Hoffman likes to get out and talk with students about their job opportunities, he said. “I enjoy working with kids.”
The job fair allows students to see various jobs and see what interests them. “If they engage themselves they really like it,” said Hoffman.
Ambulance Director Adam Rabe and Emergency Medical Technician Evan Welsh answered questions about emergency medical services. “I just kind of approach it as the medical field,” said Rabe. Emergency medical skills are useful in many medical jobs.
“They ask a lot of questions,” said Rabe of the students. Some students who visit with Rabe want to be firefighters, he said, and emergency medical services often hires firefighters.
“We kind of brought our fancy tools with us,” he said, demonstrating a video laryngoscope Rabe also helped students intubate a medical dummy, said Welsh.
Rebecca Smith asked Rabe and Welsh what it’s like to work in emergency medicine. They admitted that it can be hectic. “We like the pressure,” said Welsh. “I think we work better that way.”
Employees in the emergency medical field need good communications skills, Welsh told Smith. They have to talk to patients and understand what’s wrong. They also need health care skills to treat the problems.
Though still in high school, Smith is training to be a certified nursing assistant though Kirkwood Iowa County. “I just came from my clinicals,” she said.
Smith said she’s leaning toward emergency medicine or becoming a psychiatric nurse.
Miyah Mallard and Addison Booher from English Valleys High School spun a wheel to win prizes from Compass Memorial Health Care.
Mallard wants to work in pediatrics. She’s got a job shadowing opportunity coming up at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, she said. She’s currently working at a nursing home in North English.
Though she visited with Compass Memorial at the job fair, Booher has already decided to pursue welding. She’ll be enrolled at Kirkwood Iowa County’s welding program next year, she said.
Both Mallard and Booher are sophomores, but both are dual enrolled with Kirkwood.
Mike Jacobsen discussed dual credit, job shadowing and internships with Hayden Kanke, Layne Peska, Bryar Slockett and Noah Etzel of Iowa Valley High School.
The job fair is always a great opportunity for networking for students, said Jacobsen.
Tonya Caron, with Kirkwood’s Workplace Learning Connection, said businesses attend the job fair to show students what careers are available through them.
Businesses are collecting information from the students as well, said Caron. They may make a connection for a part-time job.
During the job fair, WLC gave students information about job shadowing and internships. “It’s good to get their faces in front of the businesses,” said Caron.
Kirkwood Benton County held its job fair in Vinton the same day.
