Companies, teens get the opportunity to meet one-on-one at jobs fair

MINNEAPOLIS — Local businesses are looking to hire seniors graduating from high school for part- and full-time jobs.

Employers from all industry sectors set up inside the CTE North Tech Center at North High School to look for workers. Their target demographic, graduating high school seniors.

“I feel like since all of them are here I get a lot more opportunities than I would if I was just applying online because for some of these organizations I probably would not have looked for them,” said Jonathan Sims, a Edison High School Graduate.

He wants to go into health care and help seniors.

“Right now I’m looking at like health care services so the recent one I just went to was like senior living,” said Sims.

Most of these employers are hiring for the Summer, some students will continue after they enter college. Other jobs, it’s like on-the-job training, for a lifetime career.

“I feel like this is really good for us seniors right now looking for jobs looking for careers they are interested in,” said Ayanle Gedi a South High School Graduate 

Ayanle Gedi is plotting his pathway to a future in IT.

He stopped at potential employer Smart North, hoping work there would be a perfect fit.

“I’m interested in an IT role or cyber security and I’ll hopefully get into a good job where I can help my family and my community,” said Gedi. “This will be very rewarding for me.”

“We want to make sure that our youth are able to compete when they come of age when they enter the job market and without exposure to these emerging technologies it’s going to be very hard to do so,” said Tayo Daniel CEO of Smart North.

He believes partnering with Minneapolis Public Schools is a great way to offer opportunities to young people.

“So we are exposing them to 3-D printers, VR, AR cyber security, IT help desk and much more and its very important to do that at a young age,” said Daniel.

Seniors get one-on-one interviews with employers, they are also able to print out resumes and get important job interviewing tips.

“Right now I’m leaning towards radiology because they told me about this travel work where the company pays them to fly out to different states,” said Rafael Toledo a Southwest High School Graduate.

He believes he has hit the jackpot. The perfect job that could possibly lead to the perfect career for him.

Reg Chapman

Reg Chapman joined WCCO-TV in May of 2009. He came to WCCO from WNBC-TV in New York City where he covered an array of stories for the station including the Coney Island plane crash, the crane collapse on the city’s east side, 50 shots fired at motorist Sean Bell by New York Police, and a lacrosse team assault at Fairfield High School in Connecticut.