A mammoth crowd of students, representatives of diverse departments and businesses in the public and private sectors, and persons from throughout the island, filled the sprawling Rodney MacArthur Rey Auditorium to capacity for the 2013 Careers Fair on Thursday, April 18.
It was easily adjudged to have been the largest such annual event held so far by the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School. Every space of the building was taken up by tables of displays featuring materials and information on various job opportunities; by those who manned the tables and by those who congregated around them. A crescendo of voices filled the air with questions and answers – occasionally interrupted by the coordinator of the Careers Fair, Anita Ruan, on the public address system.
“We have fifty-eight career areas represented and I am so excited. I don’t think it can get bigger than this,” Mrs. Ruan told The Anguillian over the din of noise. “Some of the career areas include journalism, event planning, repairing major appliances, telecommunications, Information Technology, fishing and marine resources, jobs in various government ministries andcareers in art. Viceroy and CuisinArt hotels are here and they have really taken careers in hospitality to another level. We have careers in body art and we have a representative from St. Maarten. My own daughter is here with careers in face-painting and it is also exciting at the back where we have careers in entertainment, stage-management and lighting. It is really exciting and the problem we are having is that when the children come in they don’t want to leave [to allow space for other students to enter].”
Other career areas which attracted a great deal of interest included medical and health, fire and rescue services, the environment, internet and data services.
The Careers Fair was a stunning presentation which involved a lot of organisation and participation. It exposed the students to a wide selection of job opportunities. Mrs. Anita Ruan and all who worked with her deserve much commendation for their hard work, planning and execution of the event.
The departments, businesses, individuals who participated in the effort must also be highly commended for the very useful role they played.
