Young Adult Job Seekers Find Employment at Job-Ready Hire Fair
Over 50 Leading Companies Brought High-Demand Jobs To Out-Of-School And Unemployed Young Adults At The 2nd Annual Hiring Fair
ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Today, Innovate Educate (I+E), a national non-profit, announced the results from the Job-Ready Hire Fair held in Albuquerque, last month. The organization’s focus is on developing strategies for new pathways to employment using Assess / Hire / Train / Advance framework in NM and across the U.S. based on skills and competencies.
Over 700 job seekers attended the fair on Thursday, May 11, 2017 at the Albuquerque Rail Yards. According to the 50 participating employers from the event, more than 400 job offers have been made or are pending as of this week.
“Innovate+Educate’s partnerships with employers across Albuquerque have more than doubled over the past year, creating immense value for both the businesses themselves and the newly employed,” said Abigail Carlton, managing director at The Rockefeller Foundation. “The Rockefeller Foundation is pleased to support this second year of Job-Ready Hire in Albuquerque, and hope to see more of these impact hiring strategies and solutions in the employment space that result in better outcomes for both companies and workers.”
“Innovate+Educate’s partnerships with employers across Albuquerque have more than doubled over the past year, creating immense value for both the businesses themselves and the newly employed.”
— Abigail Carlton, Managing
Director, The Rockefeller Foundation
The Job-Ready Hire Fair is designed to give young adults, ages 18-24, an opportunity to apply for and get work based on their skills rather than their experience, reinforcing the importance of skills training as an alternate pathway for job seekers to find employment and for employers to find talent. As part of a national effort to promote skills-based hiring, I+E asked employers to drop barriers to employment for entry – and mid-skill jobs and use a “filter in” approach that considers traditional qualifications, assessment on core competencies, natural skills/abilities, and informal learning/life experiences, instead of the traditional “filter out” approach that most candidates find.
Interested candidates were invited to register for free and take Core Score, a newly released soft skills assessment. Core Score helps identify candidates that are job-ready, measuring critical skills including literacy, communications, leadership, and customer service. Through Core Score candidates can earn digital badges that signal to employers that they have the skills and knowledge they are looking for to be successful in their job role from day one. It can also help candidates identify training opportunities and curriculum to skill-up at one of the TalentABQ skill-up centers. Over 600 job seekers took Core Score.
As part of a national effort to promote skills-based hiring, I+E asked employers to drop barriers to employment for entry – and mid-skill jobs and use a “filter in” approach that considers traditional qualifications, assessment on core competencies, natural skills/abilities, and informal learning/life experiences, instead of the traditional “filter out” approach that most candidates find.
Qualifications and skill sets were provided on “skills badges” so potential employers could quickly screen candidates onsite and find good matches for vacant positions. As examples, Sitel hired approximately 25 people from the event. WalMart, Lowes, Starbucks, Santa Ana Star Casino, Brewer Oil and many more also hired several candidates, and other extended job offers are underway. The fair included community partners from the City of Albuquerque, New Mexico Workforce Connection – Central Region, New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, Youth Development Inc., Jobs for America Graduates, Mission Graduate, and My Brother’s Keeper. The work was funded through a grant from The Rockefeller Foundation, and is in partnership with Talent ABQ, a skills-based hiring initiative funded by the City of Albuquerque Economic Development Department.