Job candidates connect with hospitality companies at East End fair
5 weeks of coaching for folks fascinated in hospitality, leisure and tourism positions culminated Saturday with a position fair in Hampton Bays as aspect of efforts to spark development inside the East End’s hospitality and leisure sector.
Job good recruiters from additional than 30 providers sought staff for managerial roles, and positions as chefs, bartenders, dishwashers and far more.
Roughly 50 people among these attending the honest at Hampton Bays Significant School had properly trained for five weeks at the thoroughly funded Suffolk’s East Conclude Hospitality & Tourism Academy, also held at the large school.
Emilia Aparicio, 55, of Hampton Bays, was one particular of them. The wife and mother of two was hoping to obtain a cleaning position.
“I experience like I climbed several amounts greater,” Aparicio said of the academy as she geared up to speak with recruiters Saturday. “For me, it was quite successful and I figured out a good deal.”
The academy, a new initiative, was produced by way of collaboration with the Suffolk County Section of Labor, Licensing, & Customer Affairs, Hampton Bays Higher College, and the Canoe Spot Inn & Cottages.
It targeted on schooling attendees in factors of hospitality, tourism and leisure sectors these kinds of as point-of-sale knowledge, teamwork, seller management and all round presentation competencies.
Emilia Aparicio, of Hampton Bays, was amid job candidates on hand Saturday.
Credit score: John Roca
Aparicio instructed Newsday she discovered out about the academy while discovering English at BOCES courses. She reported she figured out how to be improved prepared in getting work inside of the hospitality marketplace.
“I realized that it is more than just a position, it’s a support. It’s about producing persons feel very good, no issue exactly where you are,” she mentioned.
Ron Kelly, 65, of Southampton, a longtime East Conclusion resident and academy attendee, said these kinds of career fairs and coaching chances ended up of “the utmost importance” in trying to keep the area overall economy going.
“People have to comprehend there are decent positions listed here and [the job fair] is a superior way for folks to know that [opportunities] are suitable below in our group,” Kelly mentioned. “It’s really important for folks to see this, specifically young folks and so forth.”
Suffolk’s leisure and hospitality sector endured for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, shedding above 60,000 jobs involving February and April 2020, according to the 2021 Suffolk County Neighborhood Workforce Prepare. The sector has demonstrated indicators of gradual recovery, regaining just around 40,000, or 62.9%, of first work dropped among April 2020 and March 2021.
Justine Oudeans, 50, of East Quogue, performs various work like running yard packages at a local university and at a Southampton flower store. Seeking a new vocation route, Oudeans — who attended the academy and seeks a job in either recruiting or visitor products and services — stated she is attracted to hospitality simply because she considers herself a persons person.
“This [job fair] should be carried out likely in every single element, not just in hospitality,” Oudeans explained. “With any corporations out there, we should really be possessing position fairs at least three to four occasions in advance of the get started of the summer season time, since we have such a powerful summer months period out right here.”