Quinnipiac Hosts Roadshow and Career Fair

HAMDEN – About 1,500 middle- and high-school students from Connecticut visited Quinnipiac University’s M&T Bank Arena on Tuesday morning for ReadyCT’s Connecticut Manufacturing Roadshow.

The students, like Milford’s Nathaniel Childs, learned about future workforce opportunities at the 25 manufacturing companies in attendance.

“I like to learn about different job opportunities for the future – especially building things,” said Childs, a seventh-grade student at Harborside Middle School. “I know I want to do some sort of engineering. I feel like it’s really good education-wise to be exposed to this at an early age.”

That is what the roadshow was all about, according to Paul Lavoie, Connecticut’s chief manufacturing officer.

“We want to introduce kids to the wonderful opportunities they have for life-changing careers in manufacturing,” Lavoie said. “We want to make sure that we keep the kids here in the state. If they learn in Connecticut, I want them to earn in Connecticut.”

Lavoie praised Quinnipiac’s School of Computing and Engineering for helping to organize the roadshow, especially John Bau, director of career development at Quinnipiac, and Lynn Byers, professor and director of the mechanical engineering program.

“This is amazing,” Bau said. “We have kids coming from all over the state right here to Quinnipiac to check out career opportunities and options within technology and engineering. We are showing the kids that they can stay here in Connecticut and have an amazing career in a wide range of technology-based areas. Whether it is IT, manufacturing, construction or civil engineering, Connecticut is a great place to start your career and stick around.”

The roadshow was one of two events held at Quinnipiac on Tuesday. In the afternoon, the university also hosted the CT Manufacturing, Engineering and Technology Career Fair.

The career featured nearly 100 booths from a wide variety of companies hiring in the manufacturing industry. Representatives from the emerging technology field, plus engineering companies, were present. Employers met with well-prepared, entry-level candidates for full-time, internship and apprentice roles to keep trained talent in Connecticut.

The career fair was open to the public and included Quinnipiac students as well as students from Housatonic Community College, Fairfield University, the University of Hartford and the University of New Haven.

The statewide career fair was sponsored by Connecticut’s MIF Manufacturing Engineering Internship Program, powered by the Connecticut Center for Advance Technology with funding from the Department of Economic and Community Development’s Manufacturing Innovation Fund.

Taskin Kocak, dean of the School of Computing and Engineering, said he was excited to see both youngsters and adults check out what the state has to offer.

“We need more engineers and more STEM people,” Kocak said. “These are two kinds of events that make people feel excited about STEM careers. It’s a great day.”