High schoolers can explore career options at ‘State of Jobs’ event

Treasure Coast high school seniors are getting an education about local career options.

“It’s a half-day event that will allow high school seniors the opportunity to meet with community leaders and employers in the area,” said Jennifer DuBey, communications director at CareerSource Research Coast. “We’re looking to have 600 students from the Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin County high schools.”

On Oct. 25, CareerSource Research Coast is hosting its first State of Jobs Conference, at the Havert L. Fenn Center in Fort Pierce. The conference is only for the invited students, who come from every high school in the three counties. Among other things, the invited students will hear from keynote speaker Dr. Tiffany Sizemore, a Lincoln Park Academy graduate who is a cardiologist in Fort Lauderdale.

The conference is focusing on three local career opportunities: healthcare, manufacturing and skilled trades.

“A couple years ago, the St. Lucie County Economic Development Council did a skills-gap study,” DuBey said. “We found the sectors complaining the most that they don’t have the workers were healthcare, manufacturing and skilled trades.”

The Treasure Coast Skills Gap Study was released in 2017. Among other things, the study found that 62 percent of surveyed manufacturers reported having difficulties finding workers with the right skills for the available jobs at a time when they most needed to add employees. More than 90 percent of local manufacturers reported they needed and planned to add workers.

In the Port St. Lucie Metropolitan Statistical Area, comprised of St. Lucie and Martin counties, about 2,000 new jobs opened from July 2017 to July 2018. Among the industry sectors that gained jobs were trade, transportation and utilities with 800, education and health services with 500, and manufacturing with 100. DuBey said current projections are that those fields will continue growing locally even as many of the current workers are nearing retirement.

The study led to the creation of the Workforce Readiness Task Force to look for solutions. “We were looking for a way to build a talent pipeline,” DuBey said.

She said nationally and statewide school systems were pushed into preparing students for college for the last couple decades. DuBey said along the way the availability of elective courses related to traditional blue-collar work diminished.

Now, a generation later, “we keep talking about the fact there’s a shortage of people who can do certain things like welding,” DuBey said. “We have a shortage of welders not just in our county or state, but across the world.”

DuBey said the conference and other efforts are aimed at showing current high school students that the choices aren’t college or nothing. She said there’s a lot of good opportunities between the two.

The idea for the State of Jobs Conference isn’t original. The taskforce discovered that the CareerSource Suncoast has co-hosted them for a few years and looked into it.

“About five years ago CareerSource Suncoast started the State of Jobs Conference,” DuBey explained. “It was their way of exposing students to different career paths open to them.”

CareerSource Suncoast started with 500 students and three industry sectors. Now, DuBey said, it’s annually hosting conferences with 1,200 students and many industry sectors. “You can go to a tech school and get a certification to be a welder and you’re making $40,000,” DuBey said.

 Organizers are still seeking area businesses who’d like to take part in the conference. Call Susan Haggard, sector strategy coordinator, at 866- 482-4473 ext. 415 for more. 

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