KAILUA-KONA — It’s a partnership geared toward tearing down the help wanted signs in the windows of local businesses.
KAILUA-KONA — It’s a partnership geared toward tearing down the help wanted signs in the windows of local businesses.
West Hawaii Today is teaming up with Kona Commons and the Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce for the inaugural 2017 Career Expo May 17 to match job-seekers with bustling businesses looking to fill their ranks in a one-stop-shop gathering.
Looking to advance or switch your career? Need help polishing your resume? The goal of the gathering is to get everybody together to get things done.
“We think this would be a good opportunity for the west side to do this together,” said Nancy Sakamoto, general manager of Kona Commons, host of the event that will take place on Makala Boulevard in the old Sports Authority space.
As a shopping center they’ve put on job expos in the past. But over the past couple of years, Sakamoto said, she’s seen an increase in job openings for employment, ranging from service worker jobs to management positions.
“I hope it’s an easier way for businesses and people looking for jobs to condense their time,” she said. “It’s like one stop for people looking for employment and businesses looking for employees.”
Lauren Avery, a member of the Chamber of Commerce and of the Workforce and Education Committee, agreed.
She said the event is the first major career expo for West Hawaii and the hope is to showcase the partnerships the chamber has in the community.
But just as importantly, a recent report shows there is a need.
The idea for the job expo came out of the results of a questionnaire emailed out to businesses in 2014. Last year, Avery said, the chamber published a report from those results that indicated what types of jobs were available on the island.
According to the report, the top five general skills needed in a West Hawaii business were: customer service; communication; logic, reasoning and problem solving; office administrative support; and sales.
Present and future training needs identified by the respondents in the questionnaire were: career development counseling; cultural knowledge; engineering; entrepreneurship; financial fundamentals; leadership training; lifestyle and wellness training; management training mentor; training network/relationship; building professionalism and work; ethics social media marketing; spreadsheet skills; technology; time management and multi-tasking; verbal communication; and writing skills.
Avery said there typically aren’t enough people with skills qualified for higher level jobs requiring many of those businesses to recruit off island.
But by learning and working together, that can change.
“The entire workforce needs to be educated and having a career in mind,” Avery said. “We need to train, we need to have more workshops on how to properly act on what’s required if they want a better job.”
The partnership is also a way to show support for the chamber, which serves a vital role in promoting West Hawaii business and the community, West Hawaii Today Editor Tom Hasslinger said.
“The job fair is important because it puts so many different people in the room together,” he said.
The expo will run from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Register in advance for free admission at hawaiicareerexpo.com. Anyone interested in being a vendor at the event can send an email to classifieds@westhawaiitoday.com.