In a slumping economy, jobs are scarce and that's why the BELTRAIDE, held a Career Fair in Belize City today.
It was an opportunity for 12 local companies could meet prospective employees interested in applying for a total of 714 jobs. Instead of the companies giving an application deadline, sifting through the resumés of all applicants, and then choosing a short list of potential employees, they get to meet as many of the interested applicants as possible in a kind of speed dating environment.
This initiative is part of BELTRAIDE's Competitiveness Month, and 7News stopped by to find out if it was actually working as planned. Here's what we learned.
Brian Lin, Representative - BELTRAIDE
"Beltraide is very excited this year, it's our very first career fair. The intent of the career fair is to serve as a forum to connect between the talents or essentially the job seekers with the job opportunities. The model that we're adapting is somewhere we call speed dating model whereby the objective is that the candidate will show up. They will be able to meet and greet the companies that are here seeking talent. The companies on their part are expected to eventually being able to shortlist a qualified number of candidates that match their criteria. As you can see, the kind of traffic that we are seeing and I can share hat as of yesterday we are looking at over 540 candidates whom have already been pre-registered within our system. Literally every company has its own standardized interview and procedures, which takes 20-25 minutes. It is for that reason we believe that the speed dating model in the form of a career fair can serve to expedite in the recruitment process. So if you as a candidate impress the companies and for different reasons that you are shortlisted. You'll be quickly contacted and informed of what follows next in terms of good news."
Khalil Salazar, Manager - Caribbean Premier Products
"I think it's a wonderful initiative taken by Beltraide. It gives companies like us that opportunity to meet the young talented Belizeans in one central location. I've previously done postings on the Internet and you get maybe 50 applicants. This gives us the opportunity to look at a resume, talk to the person up front and do the shortlist at the same time."
Efrain Niovelo, Management - Big Creek Group
"From 9 this morning I haven't seen my 10 chairs empty. We have taken 15-20 minutes which each prospective applicant. So far we have gone through between 50-60 youngsters. They won't be more than 25 years old which is very impressive and it's sad because there is so many talent out there. We need to move this economy."
Melissa Calderon, Office Admin - Third Floor Limited
"We're apart of Gran Caribe Belize, it's the number one hotel of the year for BTB so our expectations for workers are very high. We have very high standards so we believe that part taking in this event we would find workers that suit our standards and will be able to fulfill our desired open positions."
Misael Cowo, HR Manager - Protel BPO
"Out of 5 stars i would give it maybe 4. We've had some really good candidates that came in this morning."
The BELTRAIDE Representatives told us that some the applicants who participated in the job fair left with good news that they've already been short-listed by the companies they want to work for.
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