LIHUE — People seeking work on Kauai are invited to Kauai Community College’s annual job fair Thursday. “We’re very excited for the job fair,” said Cheryl Stiglmeier, KCC job fair committee member and training coordinator for the Office of Continuing Education and
LIHUE — People seeking work on Kauai are invited to Kauai Community College’s annual job fair Thursday.
“We’re very excited for the job fair,” said Cheryl Stiglmeier, KCC job fair committee member and training coordinator for the Office of Continuing Education and Training. “It’s something that we feel we need to offer to our students as well as to our community.”
Residents can speak with representatives of 44 companies including Aflac, Bayada, Enterprise, Safeway and St. Regis Princeville Resort, which will be hiring for part time, full time and seasonal positions.
“We have a whole variety of different employers that will be here and employers that are willing to hire,” Stiglmeier said. “With our unemployment rate so low, we know it’s hard to find open positions.”
As of February, the unemployment rate on Kauai was 4.8 percent. The state’s unemployment rate was 4.1 percent while the country’s was 5.8 percent.
As the director of the Bayada Kauai Office, Stephanie Kephart said she is also looking forward to the job fair and reaching out to individuals.
“We have lots of career opportunities so we hope that we are able to provide additional career opportunities for people on island to take care of their community,” Kephart.
Bayada, an organization that provides health care services, will be looking for nurses, habilitation technicians, home health aids and homemaking companions.
“We participated in the past and we got a lot of great, qualified candidates as well,” Kephart said.
She offered advice to those trying to find a job.
“I would say be persistent and if you find something that you are inspired to do, not to give up on it,” Kephart said.
Dustin Deniz, Honolulu regional sales coordinator for the insurance company Aflac, said he’s looking forward to coming to Kauai to meet aspiring employees and adding them to the Aflac team.
He said career fairs allow him to meet people in order to identify if they are qualified candidates. The Aflac team is looking to fill a benefit consultant position and for someone with previous management experience.
Deniz said he has found good employees through career fairs.
“We’re hoping to have about 500 people who will walk through and talk to these different employers and if we have more then that’s fantastic,” said Stiglmeier.
The job fair will be from 9 a.m. to noon and participants are asked to come professionally dressed and bring a copy of their resume.
KCC is partnering with Work Wise Kauai and the County of Kauai’s Office of Economic Development to put on the fair.
