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Job seekers fill out applications at the Spring Job Fair hosted by Workforce Solutions at the Bob A. Bowers Civic Center in Port Arthur. Photo made Thursday, May 11, 2023 Kim Brent/Beaumont Enterprise
Kim Brent
Tianna Lee has been working in the fast food industry since she was 17. Now 26, the Port Arthur resident has been out of work since March and said she isn’t just looking for another job – she’s looking for a brighter future.
Thursday morning, Lee was hitting up as many booths as possible at Workforce Solutions’s Spring Job Fair in the Bob A. Bowers Civic Center.
“I have a family to support – my wife and two kids aged 2 and 4. So, I’m just trying to make a better future for us,” Lee said.
She was among hundreds from all age ranges that filled the civic center with a similar purpose in mind -- to make a better life for themselves and their families.
Not everyone was unemployed.
Ambrose Akers has a job, but he wanted to explore new options.
“I’ve been driving trucks for Time 2 Drive, LLC, for nine years now,” the Beaumont man said. “It might be time for a change. So, I thought I’d use my day off to see what’s out there and where I fit.”
Helping people like Lee and Akers connect with new and better opportunities is at the core of Workforce Solutions’s job fairs, which Chasity Bill said have been “busy and drawing really good crowds.”
The fairs offer the chance to connect with employers and provide tips on job interviewing and assistance crafting a resume.
“There are also opportunities for interviews and job offers on the spot,” Bill said, as she and co-workers checked in the steady stream of job seekers Thursday, directing them to the 85 businesses and organizations that filled the civic center. Their tables were filled with brochures, sign up lists, applications and current employees sharing information about what they do and the skills needed to get on board.
Career options covered a broad spectrum from the area’s biggest refineries to schools, banks, restaurants, industry, health care, law enforcement, refinery firefighters, the Port of Port Arthur and even event planning.
Within many of those businesses are layers of career options that require different levels of training or certification.
Natalie Presley, the Talent and Workforce Development Specialist with Apache Industrial Holdings, told job seekers about the services their company offers, which includes positions ranging from painters to scaffold workers.
Port Arthur ISD’s Director of Maintenance and Custodial Edgar Redeaux was on hand to talk about the career paths schools offer beyond those for educators.
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His department takes care of all the district’s facilities – everything from routine cleaning to HVAC maintenance and repair to IT services and even a print shop that creates the handbooks and other materials used by teachers and students.
“We make sure teachers and administrators have what they need and that (the students) don’t have to focus on anything other than their school work. They don’t have to think about it being too hot or too cold or something not working. All they have to focus on is learning successfully,” he said.
It’s the “behind the scenes” jobs needed to make schools work, he said.
That kind of variety in career options is what inspired Severa McGrady to bring her 14-year-old grandson Isaah Mesa to the job fair.
He’s not filling out applications anytime soon, but “I wanted to show him there are opportunities out there for you,” McGrady said. “He’s just getting ready for the future.”