AMHERST – Local youths who are working during the school year and summer, and employers who hire teenagers, will discuss the current job market during a panel event for high schoolers and college students next week.
The hour-long job forum will be held at the Amherst Survival Center, 138 Sunderland Road, at 5:30 p.m. May 19.
“This is the second event specifically for youth, and we’re excited to be offering this kind of information support for them, said Tracey Levy, program director at the survival center, in an email. “Last year’s panel discussion was well-attended by teens, and it let us know that this is a need we could meet.”
Matt Rigney, director of Alternative Youth Programs at the Collaborative for Educational Services, which is partnering with the survival center and the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools Vocational Services, and Tim Duchesne, a manager at a local retail store that regularly hires teen workers, will be among the panelists, along with teens who have landed employment. They will answer questions and offer hints about finding a job.
Though the event is not a job fair, the hope is that those who attend will get the information and support they need to join the workforce, Levy said.
“Last year’s was enormously successful and the feedback was all positive as young people and their parents learned about the best ways to get through the ‘I applied and they never called back’ wall, as well as the do’s and don’ts of applying, interviewing and working,” Levy said.
Those who come can also have a light dinner that the center puts on at 5 p.m. Thursdays.
The center regularly offers individualized job search support for people of all ages from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursdays, as well as periodic job readiness workshops.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
