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Did the Northumberland County EDC’s job fair help? Not so much. We deserve better.

The Northumberland County Economic Development Commission partnered with Northumberland County Public Schools to hold the Saturday, November 2 Northumberland County Career and Job Expo 2024.

On Thursday, November 15, the EDC reported to the supes on the event. Some data in the report:

  • Individuals in attendance: Five under 18 and one 18-24

  • Employers in attendance: Six (Northumberland High School; Indian Creek Yacht & Country Club; Abilities Abound Physical Therapy and Wellness Center, Callao; Northumberland Emergency Services; Northumberland Library; Division of Rehabilitative Services, Fredericksburg)

  • Lessons learned: Explore grant options for spring events; advance planning for wider dissemination; more collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce; and plan for a broader County-wide effort, details to follow

The supervisors responded positively to the report.

I, on the other hand, have a negative response. The EDC has not articulated a workforce development goal for the county. Nor has it identified and publicly shared employer and employee needs, as well as demands from the in migration during the first three years of the pandemic. As a result, I cannot ascertain how the job fair fits in to the EDC’s and broader government’s policy and practice goals. On the ground, my experience with nonprofits, local government, individuals and organizations doing great outreach and engagement work, and a population needing services and supports has informed my negative response to the report, the planning of the event, and actual event. Here are the reasons.

  • I don’t know if there was a target employee population, and therefore employer type, for the event. The flyer, at the end of the post, offers no indication of either. This is important because it would have helped staff and commissioners target their efforts.

  • At least on social media, outreach was virtually non-existant and the county government did nothing. Nothing. Northumberland County, Virginia, the county gov’s Facebook page, had not one word about the event. One thousand five hundred plus people follow the page. That’s a pretty big missed opportunity. The county also did not share the event with the Northern Neck Jobs Facebook group. Finally, the EDC/county admin did not make use of (Crowdsourced) Outreach on the NNK; this info has been shared with various county staff several times.
    • Screenshot of the employment fair notice on the county government website.

  • As for promotion on the county website, staff added the “press release/announcement” rather than language written and formatted to engage and excite and, so far as I can tell, the event was not posted on the home page, prime real estate for information sharing.
  • The EDC did not promote the employers who would be in attendance and the types of openings for which they would be recruiting.

  • Because the report did not indicate the time spent on the event, I don’t understand the value of getting a grant to plan and operate a future employment fair. From the outside looking in, it’s not clear what a grant would pay for. And time for the executive director is not a legitimate response until an analysis of what he spends his time on generally and spent specific to the job fair is known.

Looking forward, there are some resources which could help the Northumberland County Economic Development Commission better meet the needs of unemployed, underemployed, and seasonally employed residents, as well as employers, in this and other counties on the Northern Neck.

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