It was an eventful day at the Fair Barn in Pinehurst as the second annual Moore County Career Expo brought together more than 50 employers and over 70 hopeful job seekers on Thursday, Oct. 23. 

With booths spread out across the barn, employers like Mountaire, Aging Outreach Services and even the U.S. Army were able to connect one on one with the public to discuss career opportunities. 

“For local employers, [it is important] to understand the OJT program and the work experience program. We're available to talk and to sit down with them, either at their location or at our location. Here in Aberdeen, we have a NCWorks office, and we're more than happy to sit down with them and discuss the two programs. And for job seekers, getting them an NCWorks account and making sure that they have the resumes into the system is very important. Once we do that, we will walk them through the rest of the steps. We will get them into the right programs,” shared Sylvester Anderson, business services consultants for NCWorks in Cumberland and Moore Counties. 

Along with an open invitation to working adults, local students were encouraged to attend thanks to NCWorks’ NextGen youth workforce development program. 

“We know that with a lot of the youth, they may be undecided as far as careers go. So just being able to come out and talk to the different employers is something that really shed light to them. I know sometimes they come to the office to talk to us about certain positions, but we actually think it's best that they get it from the employers, because they are the ones that are the subject matter experts,” shared NextGen work based coordinator Lee Howell Jr. “We just really wanted to make sure that we came together, that we really pushed this event towards any youth related organizations, whether they're out of school or in school youth.” 

The event was able to ensure that hopeful employees were ready to go with the presence of the NCWorks Mobile Career Center Unit. A traveling career center that provides resources to both employers and those looking for a new job.

“The mobile unit is pretty much like the Career Center. Whenever you come in on the bus, we have the computers that are set up, they are already hooked up to WiFi, so we can register you on ncworks.gov, we can print off your resume, if employers want to come on and do presentations, we have presentation screens, we have a space for employers to interview clients or potential employees on there,” shared Jesscia Thomas, Career advisor for NCWorks-Moore County.

Learn more about NCWorks and its workforce development resources online at www.ncworks.gov