LEWISTON — With his resume in hand, looking sharp in a shirt and tie, Abdi Hamsa, 16, approached Michelle Cyr at a job fair at Lewiston High School on Thursday.

Cyr, who represents the YMCA, told him summer counseling jobs were available for workers his age. She gave him an application, saying, “It’s my last one.”

In another section of the gym, six Lewiston Regional Technical Center law enforcement students, dressed in blue, heard about what working as a dispatcher is like.

Fielding emergency calls helps you get to know the ins and outs of the cities, said Robinson Copland of the Lewiston-Auburn 911 Emergency Communications System. It gets busy at times. “Full moons, the first of the month when people get paid, the summertime; if it’s been raining for days and the sun breaks out on a Friday or Saturday.”

At a table for Bath Iron Works, a cluster of students gathered around Murlyn Greenleaf as he rattled off details of the “massive, state-of-the-art” Navy ships.

“How many guns are on there?” one student asked.

“You guys build them?” another asked.

“We sure do,” Greenleaf said. “Right at BIW; right down the road.”

Lewiston senior Derek Babbidge, 19, said he had a job but was interested in BIW. “I want to do pipefitting, sandblasting.” Greenleaf gave him some pointers on what colleges to consider, Babbidge said. He was pleased to meet employers. “The job fair’s a very good tool for kids,” he said.

The school’s inaugural job fair was hosted by the Lewiston Regional Technical Center and Jobs for Maine Graduates in the high school gym. The push for the job fair came from first-year Jobs for Maine Graduates teacher Brian York.

Employers came looking to hire, said Jake Langlais, assistant director of LRTC. As some students headed back to class, they were optimistic that they had landed a job, Langlais said.

“We called every major local company we could think of that had a direct hand in our programs,” York said. “This started with an idea for a career fair. But it quickly turned into a job fair to get these kids employed.”

Students were coached on how to dress, how to write resumes, and how to speak and act, York said.

Employers noticed.

“I met some fantastic kids,” Laura Dubois of TD Bank said. “They provided great communication, eye contact, great resumes.” However, many were not yet 18, the minimum age of workers she hires for the call center, she said. But it won’t be long before they are, Dubois added.

BIW’s Greenleaf said students he talked to were “awesome.” They asked challenging questions and were serious about trying to find direction in their lives, he said.  “We should do more of this.”

The Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office is always hiring, Capt. Ray Lafrance said. “We look for deputies, corrections officers, part-time deputies and dispatchers.”

Most jobs require applicants to be 18 or 21 years old, but it’s good to show students law enforcement jobs are out there, Lafrance said.

One student came up to him wearing a white shirt and tie. “He introduced himself; he gave us his resume,” Lafrance said. “We gave him an application. I was pretty impressed right off the bat.”

About 500 students from LRTC and Lewiston High School attended the job fair, Langlais said. The school now plans to hold one every spring.

Participating employers were the U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy and National Guard, Androscoggin Savings Bank, Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department, Bates College, Carbonite, Cianbro, Cosmotech, Empire Beauty School, Fastenal, Ford, Hannaford, Goodwill, Hilton Garden Inn, Interior Solutions, IEBW 567, JMG, Lawn Guard, Lowe’s, Manpower, Marden’s, Paul G. White, Prompto, Russell Park Manor, Southern and Central Maine community colleges, Spa Tech, St. Mary’s Health System, System Logistics, TD Bank Call Center, UPS, VIP and the YWCA.

bwashuk@sunjournal.com

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