Courtney Laverdure
Staff writer
Students currently doing their student teaching or alumni who are certified to teach had the opportunity to attend the Teacher/Education Fair last Friday, Nov. 11, 2011.
Career Services sponsored events are held specifically for those who are part of the Murray State population, and most fairs are closed to outsiders.
“Our efforts are to promote our students,” career services specialist, Regina Hudspeth, said.
Career Services had a total of 24 employers register to attend this semester’s fair. Schools as far as Jefferson County, Ky., Hardin County, Ky., as well as Nashville and Shelby County of Tennessee, and the Network of International Christian Schools of Mississippi, were in attendance, Hudspeth said.
The fall fair is traditionally smaller than the spring fair, Hudspeth said, normally in the spring, 35 to 42 schools register to attend.
“This is understandable since the summer is usually when most schools hire the majority of their employees,” Hudspeth said.
The only difference between the all –majors fair and the teacher fair is that the teacher fair is specifically for students with education majors, she said.
This Teacher/Education Fair is held as a forum allowing students and alumni to meet and network with multiple institutions at one time.
In essence, the teacher fair gives the students another opportunity to interact and sell themselves to hiring personnel, she said.
This fair is designed to give students the chance to have exposure to future employers.
“Education, like every other industry, is not exempt from the present economic status,” Hudspeth said.
Students are encouraged to seek positions outside their geographic comfort zones and must be willing to take on extracurricular positions in order to help them get a foot in the door, she said.
Hudspeth said more than half of the registered institutions indicated they had positions available and several students left the event with interviews already scheduled.
“Our present economy and the job search process itself requires that you apply for everything, everywhere to increase your chances of being hired,” she said.
The director of Career Services, Ross Meloan, said that the number of schools registered to attend this fall fair were low compared to previous years.
The low numbers were something the Career Services projected some time ago and are now experiencing in the public sector, he said.
Meloan said: “It was interesting to note that while the number of school districts was down this fall, the actual number of vacant positions was somewhat on par with previous years.”
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