PREP Reverse Job Fair at Oakland County

A "reverse job fair" reimagines the traditional job fair model. Instead of job seekers presenting themselves to employers at booths, employers are encouraged to visit job seekers’ tables, which showcase students’ unique, visual resumes, highlighting their skills and experiences. 

Last year, BHS PREP held its inaugural reverse job fair at Booth Center with remarkable success. Special education teachers Meghan Gornick and Russ McCall, along with district transition coordinator Lisa Brown, aimed to give more young adult students the opportunity to participate. Thinking outside the box, they expanded the job fair to include additional transition programs. Oakland County Schools offered to host the event at their main campus building in Pontiac after seeing the successful event at BHS. 

Students from several transition programs, Berkeley Adult Transition, Bloomfield Hills Schools PREP, Royal Oak Transitioning Responsible Adults in Life Skills, Troy Center for Transition, and Waterford Lifetracks, prepared for weeks leading up to the big event. They designed their presentation boards featuring pictures of themselves at work, along with descriptions of their skills and interests. Students practiced greeting attendees and introducing themselves. Their efforts were evident in their confidence and bright smiles. PREP student Robyn Olney noted that it was a lot of pressure but gave the experience a big thumbs up.

Human resource professionals from the Townsend Hotel learned about the reverse job fair and attended to explore the concept. They were intrigued by the setup of the event and were excited to build a new network of potential employees. The employers plan to investigate partnering with schools to create workplace opportunities in the future. This event marks just the beginning of many more job fairs to come. Brown, Gornick, and McCall hope to further expand the job fair to include all of Oakland County’s transition programs and to attract more employers.