By Mikayla van Loon
A ‘pick your own path’ career expo is coming to Lilydale to support young jobseekers looking for work in the Yarra Ranges.
Hosted by the Outer Eastern Local Learning Employment Network (OELLEN) at Yarra Ranges Tech School on 4 May, partnership broker Brooke Young said it will provide a broad array of opportunities to give young people confidence when applying for jobs.
Running over a three hour period, stall holders will be set up to answer questions and talk about different roles within industries but Ms Young said she believes it will be the breakout rooms that really have the most impact.
“We’ve got one room that is focusing on all things apprenticeship related…Then we have a breakout room around employment seeking, so looking for a job, writing resumes, interview tips, all of that,” she said.
“The middle hour is a panel discussion, facilitated by the Skills and Jobs Centre team to talk about that initial contact with employers.”
The panel discussion will include a variety of employers, recruitment staff and young people who can answer questions around getting an employer’s attention, the best interview practices and the recruitment process.
“[This is] to give people a sense of how you get past that barrier, especially a lot of young people at the moment haven’t had the opportunity to apply for a job with Covid and lockdowns and everything else.
“So it’s a big mental barrier to get through and to get that ball rolling if you haven’t had work before.”
Practising those skills is an important part of applying for jobs, so Ms Young said there will be 15 minute mock interviews where young people can answer typical questions, as well as 30 minute resume review and writing sessions.
“There’s probably a little bit of a gap between some of the old ways of writing resumes and how we used to do things to how times have moved on and actually having the opportunity to get that insight of what employers are currently looking for from you,” Ms Young said.
Having done research and heard from industries, Ms Young said these days resumes need to cater much more to the employability skills rather than technical skills, as well as needing to be presented in a way that computer programs can pick up key words.
“People think their resume looks really pretty and fancy but actually it’s confusing the computer, and they never get to the point of being looked at by human eyes.”
But Ms Young said places like career expos allow young people to have that personal communication with various people from different backgrounds to help them find the right path.
The response from a number of industries, particularly in the Yarra Ranges, has been that they want to attend events to meet people face to face and hire almost on the spot.
“Something different from last year’s expos, there’s a big demand at the moment from local employers with great local opportunities across a variety of industries who really want to hire young people at the moment and are having trouble getting the right people.
“So they’ve been approaching us and they’re really keen to come along and actually recruit on the night.
“It won’t be a high pressure situation where they have to actually conduct an interview in a crowd but they can make that initial contact and set up a time.”
Targeting young people aged 15 to 25, Ms Young said it doesn’t necessarily have to be a job people come looking for but perhaps it’s work experience or a placement to get them started.
While the expo will have representation from government agencies and industry professionals, Ms Young said construction, trades, hospitality and allied health services showed a particular interest in being a part of the event.
Being hosted at the Yarra Ranges Tech School campus, Ms Young said it’s also a great opportunity for young people to experience the 3D printers and other equipment on a tour of the facilities.
If locals can’t make it on 4 May to the Yarra Ranges event, OELLEN will be hosting a Knox focused event on 18 May.
To find out more go to https://www.oellen.org.au/events. Registration for the event is encouraged but not essential. To register go to https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/yarra-ranges-youth-career-expo-tickets-294228805277
