Workforce Partnerships + Operating Systems

The Career Fair Was One Day. The Operating System Behind It Ran All Year.

I built a repeatable employer-engagement process that connected companies, instructors, staff and students long before anyone walked through the door.

Krista Stalcup, MBA · Director of Career Services
Southern Technical College

Medical Assisting and Veterinary Assisting students interacting with employers at covered recruiting tables during a Southern Technical College career fair.
The visible event: students, employers and hiring conversations.
Employer engagement
Student preparation
Workforce partnerships
Event operations

Southern Technical College’s career fairs were the visible outcome of a year-round operating cadence. I built the process behind them to improve communication, student preparation, employer participation and access to hiring opportunities.

The operating cadence

Make the connections before the room fills.

  1. 01
    December

    Build the year

    Create annual communications and send the full upcoming career-fair schedule to employers, staff and students.

    Inside the process
    • Send calendar invitations for the entire upcoming schedule.
    • Attach prior career-fair photos so employers can see the event environment and participation.
  2. 02
    Promote

    Keep the message moving

    School flyers and Canva assets, mass email and text, calendar invitations and internal communication reinforce dates and expectations.

  3. 03
    Employer RSVP → shared intelligence

    Turn a yes into useful information

    Add accepting employers to a shared attendance spreadsheet. Staff and instructors see who is coming; students can research companies in advance.

  4. 04
    Prepare students · one week before

    Make the first conversation count

    Run a workshop on résumés, employer research, introductions, questions to ask and approaching participating companies.

  5. 05
    Align the team · weekly meeting

    Give everyone the same picture

    Review the upcoming event, logistics, communication responsibilities and expectations with Career Services, instructors and staff.

  6. 06
    Reconfirm employers · one week before

    Close the attendance loop

    Contact participating companies again to confirm attendance and reduce day-of surprises or no-shows.

  7. 07
    Execute

    Bring the system into the room

    Deliver morning and evening access around the program-specific career-fair cadence.

The actual event cadence
HVAC

One dedicated career-fair day.

Morning sessionEvening session
Medical Assisting / Veterinary Assisting

Four times per year.

Morning sessionEvening session

What the Photos Don’t Show

The photographs capture the event. They don’t capture the months of employer outreach, scheduling, communications, RSVP tracking, internal coordination, student preparation, reminders and follow-through required to make the room work.

A separate partnership mechanism

Beyond the Career Fair: Employer Advisory Engagement

I applied the same disciplined communication model to Program Advisory Committee (PAC) meetings, bringing employer and industry voices into the advisory process.

  • Stakeholder invitations
  • Advance scheduling
  • Attendance communication
  • Employer / industry participation
  • Internal coordination
  • Reminder cadence
  • Relationship follow-through
Employer and industry participants seated at a Southern Technical College Program Advisory Committee meeting while a speaker addresses the group.
Program Advisory Committee meeting: employer and industry engagement, separate from the career fair.
Employer and advisory participants posing together outside Southern Technical College after a Program Advisory Committee meeting.
Post-PAC employer / advisory group photo outside Southern Technical College.
Proof from the broader operating system
1,000+Employer & community relationships
600+Students and graduates supported annually
36% → 86%HVAC placement improvement
95%Medical Assisting placement reached

Career fairs were one component of the larger employer-partnership and placement operating system. These portfolio outcomes are not attributed to career fairs alone. View supporting evidence.

From Event Planning to Operating System

What looked like a career fair on the calendar was actually a coordinated workforce-development system — employer business development, stakeholder communication, student readiness, project management and execution working together.

Build the system before you need the outcome.