By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press
By noon, more than 500 job seekers had turned out for the Copperas Cove Economic Development Corporation’s Regional Hiring Event on Wednesday. Altogether, 712 came in the hopes of connecting with a future employer.
The four-hour event, held at the Copperas Cove Civic Center, featured more than 60 employers and agencies.
Eric Stewart is a business broker who helps get potential entrepreneurs with the information and education to open their own service-related business, such as power washing, window washing, exterminator, and more.
While not a traditional employer, Stewart provides opportunities for people to own their own businesses, emphasizing education over direct hiring.
Stewart himself was the founder and prior owner of Window Genie.
He has noted this is his second hiring event, having participated in a similar event on Fort Hood.
On Wednesday, he was pleased with the foot traffic at his table and noted the number of younger job seekers.
“They are more interested in being their own bosses rather than working for someone else,” he said.
“This has been more educational. A lot of people are like, ‘No, I never thought about it,’ or, ‘I didn't know how to go about it,” Stewart said. “Think of me as a broker, like a mortgage broker, auto broker. This is for business, and how to get started.”
Another employer was from Grace United Methodist Church in Copperas Cove. Rev. Brad Slaten was on hand in the afternoon. His church is seeking several to fill positions in key roles at the church, such as worship leader, audio/visual technician, as well as nursery workers.
The need for nursery workers is a strong one, according to Rev. Slaten.
“If we don’t have nursery workers, it tells young families, ‘We don’t want you here,’” Slaten said. “For the audio/visual technician role, we can train you.”
Slaten was pleased to see resumes that were there when he arrived, and he looks forward to going through them with the nursery director so they can have people to call on. He also was pleased with the event.
“There’s been a lot more exhibitors and traffic than I expected,” he added.
Brittany Sanders, Workforce Development Specialist for the Copperas Cove Economic Development Corporation, spearheaded the event.
“We had a lot of community support this year. We had a lot of participation. Even councilwoman Rita Hogan was here doing free headshots. Keep Copperas Cove Beautiful is here. They are not hiring, but they do offer volunteer opportunities,” said Sanders.
She said the farthest agencies that came for the hiring event were Corpus Christi and Dallas Police Departments.
“They reached out and they saw that we were having the event, and said they would make the trip,” she said.
“This year we wanted to incorporate more resources. I wanted to help job seekers with just the basic needs. The Texas Veterans Commission is here. We also have Workforce Solutions. They help with childcare assistance because that could be an obstacle to someone trying to find employment. And that was my main approach with this year's hiring event. I wanted to do a human first approach,” she added. “I wanted to incorporate those organizations here so it could be a one stop shop.”
The hiring event is part of the Hire Cove initiative.
Sanders said that within the next year or two, the EDC is going to start implementing training and development. Prior to the hiring event, the EDC hosted a special workshop which prepared job seekers in the area of resume building, what to wear for interviews, how to market themselves, and preparing their “elevator pitch.”
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