École HJ Cody High School will be holding a career expo on March 25.
The career expo provides local businesses and organizations in the community an opportunity to set up a booth and talk to the students about what the business does, career practitioner and dual credit and off-campus learning coordinator at H.J.Cody Darla Bell said.
Throughout the day, all of the students from Grade 9 to Grade 12 get the opportunity to go through the expo.
"Each student has a time frame of 30 minutes to wander the area, pick up information sheets, and some businesses also offer swag," Bell said.
One of the major goals of the Chinook's Edge School Division (CESD) is that all of the graduating students will have a plan for what to do after high school, she added.
"By having local businesses at the expo, it gives the kids an opportunity to look at what businesses have to offer, think about how they get into certain careers, and the opportunity to ask questions."
On top of the career expo, which first began last year, the school also offers career presentations, Bell said.
"One of the professionals who gave a career presentation said he had more kids offer questions at the career expo then during his presentation."
Events like career expo also help kids to broaden their horizons, she said.
"Students' views are narrow when they come and the career expo broadens their horizons by allowing them to see different job opportunities that are out there that they might not have known about."
Sometimes, the career expo also leads to job opportunities for students.
"Some businesses will accept applications from kids," Bell said.
This event wouldn't be possible without the help of the CESD Career Connections team and programs like Careers The Next Generation, Bell said.
For the career expo, Bell is hoping to see 40 to 50 businesses attend.
"Currently, we only have 18 businesses registered, but my dream is that we have 40 to 50 businesses."
Businesses interested in registering are welcome to contact Bell by emailing her at dbell@cesd73.ca to get more information.
"There is no cost to sign up, the school provides the table, all the businesses need to do is bring the materials they want," Bell said.
The event on March 25, will start at 12:30 p.m. with exhibitionists able to come in earlier to set up.
