The annual Cumberland County Schools Career Pathway Fair will take place on Friday, Feb. 21, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Crown Agri-Expo Center. Throughout the day, more than 2000 students ranging from grades fifth through 12th are expected to attend the career fair. 

The career fair aims to make students aware of the ample opportunities available to them here in their home county.

“[We’re hoping] that our students are aware of all the opportunities that we have here locally. We lose students all the time, to Raleigh, Charlotte, other bigger cities, and we want to make sure that students are aware of all the opportunities that they have here in Fayetteville to be successful, and just exposing that to them at an early age is really important…as they get older, they do industry field trips, then hopefully they can get into job shadowing, and then, finally ending in in an internship or pre-apprenticeship,” shared Cumberland County Schools High School to Work Coordinator Sara Bandurraga. 

Since the career fair caters to a wide range of ages, Bandurraga explained how they’ve tailored the experience to fit the students based on where they’re at in their educational journey. 

“So what we do is…each grade level is going to have a different scavenger hunt. So what we’re asking fifth graders to do is like, go find a table or a business with blue on it or green on it, or go find a firefighter, so they’ll complete scavenger hunts during the process. And for our middle and our high schools, those questions are a little bit different. We’ll have them explore the different pathways, ask more specific questions, like, ‘What are your hiring requirements?’ ‘How old do you have to be to work at this company?’ ‘What’s the starting salary?’ So we kind of tailor the questions on the scavenger hunt based on the age,” explained Bandurraga. 

Bandurraga shared that many businesses return to the career fair each year and participation in this event can be a great way for businesses to become even more involved with the local school system and the programs in place for integrating students into the workforce. 

One of Cumberland County School’s other notable initiatives is their ICON Summer Internship Program. This program allows Cumberland County high school students 15 and older to apply and interview to work in paid positions for four to six weeks. At the career fair, students can begin to assess which businesses they might be interested in interning with through the program. 

“At the career fair, every business that participates in our ICON internship program, they have a placard on their table…So students that are registered to participate in the ICON program, that’s one of their tasks that they have to do. They have to go and speak to that business. And then whenever they choose their businesses for interview day, they’ve already been exposed to them. So I think that it influences students in what internships they are selecting, because they get to meet the business. They get to learn more about it, rather than just reading a brochure or something about it, they can actually meet the people that work there, and that definitely does influence a lot of the interviews that they select,” added Bandurraga. 

By fostering relationships between the schools, the students and local businesses, events such as this career fair help strengthen the local workforce. 

“It’s just giving back to your community. I think a lot of people want to be engaged in their own community and I think this is just a stepping stone for a lot of businesses. When I’m out talking to businesses, I tell them all the time, like, this is your first step. If you’re like, ‘I’m not sure about hosting an industry field trip,’ or ‘I’m not sure about hosting an intern yet,’ come to our career fair. Come meet our students. Come meet our educators, and see all of the good things that we have going on. And I think that’s just like that first step that a lot of them will take is just getting involved with the school system. I think most people want to help out, and this is the first step that they can do. And it’s free, so it doesn’t cost them anything to come,” explained Bandurraga. 

As the date of the event approaches, Bandurraga shared that she is working on finalizing all of the businesses that will be in attendance. The deadline for businesses to register is Feb. 7. 

“We want as many businesses to register [and] as many different industries to participate as possible, as well. So we have everything from PWC to hair salons that are coming. We have people that make dog biscuits…it is a wide variety of businesses, and all types of businesses are welcomed,” added Bandurraga. 

In addition to businesses, some local colleges and universities will be present at the career fair. Students can visit tables from FTCC, Fayetteville State University, Methodist University and Campbell University to learn about the local educational programs available to help them obtain the skills they need to be successful in their chosen field. 

All partners will be allowed to set up on Thursday, Feb. 20 from 10:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Additional details about the event including a full agenda for the day and a form for businesses to register can be found on the event’s website: https:// sites.google.com/ccs.k12.nc.us/career-pathway-fair/home.