Page 14 - Florida Sentinel 6-24-22

Hundreds Attend Signing Day Event
The Signing Day: Job And Career Pathway event was held on June 7 at the Port Tampa Bay, Terminal 3).
Signing Day was based on the recommendations of the Mayor’s Workforce De- velopment Advisory Com- mittee to better connect people to jobs. To accom- plish its goals there had to be a collaborative effort. A team of 8 organizations joined forces to put on the the event. The organizations included: the City of Tampa, HCC, HCC Foundation, Port Tampa Bay, Tampa Bay Chamber, Associated Builders & Contractors (ABC), Reno Construction and One Tampa.
The event is a new con-
Among the organizers and participants were: Karl Strauch Port Tampa Bay; Dr. Ken Atwater, HCC president; Lillian Stringer, Tampa Housing Authority; Ocea Wynn, City of Tampa; Paul Anderson, Port Tampa Bay; Brenda McKenzie, City of Tampa; Chris Townsend, Suncoast Credit Union and Lee Lowry, HCC Foundation. (Photo by Tonya Lewis).
cept in job fairs and path- way events that launched in 2021. After hearing of low attendance at many area job events the team went to work. They polled would-be job seekers and asked them what would they like to see in events and crafted Sign- ing Day to meet the job seekers requests. The major needs were: have employers who are actively hiring, cre- ate a lively atmosphere as opposed to a “stale” one – this was achieved by having music from a local DJ and local food entrepreneurs on site so job seekers could sample offerings from up and coming chefs.
Hundreds of jobseekers attended the event that fea- tured opportunities in the 5
tops industries in Tampa -- both in terms of jobs and training as well as local gov- ernment (City & County) and CareerSource. The in- dustries included: Tourism & Hospitality, Construction, Healthcare, Manufacturing & Industrial and Business & Professional Services.
According to event organizers, the event was a success with 36 people receiv- ing and signing job of- fers with many others receiving 2nd interview request.
The Tampa Housing Au- thority became a new part- ner for the year and the HCC Foundation set up a Signing Day scholarship to benefit residents.
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