GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Leaders in the West Michigan healthcare scene like Corewell and Trinity Health are seeking employees to fill the demand for healthcare workers with a career carnival.
The West Michigan Works! West Michigan Health Careers Council is hosting its first-ever Health Care Career Carnival on Wednesday, Aug. 2, from 4-7 p.m. at the Grand Rapids Community College Leslie E. Tassell MTEC, located at 622 Godfrey Ave. SW.
The carnival includes on-site interviews, a bounce house, food trucks, a glitter tattoo station and information on higher education in the health industry. Allowing for family-fun as well as opportunities for jobs, Trevor Mier, council lead for the Michigan Health Careers Council, said everyone in the family can benefit from stopping over at the fair.
“We’re really trying to come up with innovative, new ideas to drive some traffic and get people excited to come out and learn from employers, and the exciting opportunities available across healthcare,” Mier said. “That’s kind of where the idea for this event was born: to reimagine a career fair in a way that still captures all of those really powerful elements for career exploration.”
Mier said as they came out of the COVID-19 pandemic, the council held virtual career fairs, not seeing the same level of interest, wanting to move into a medium that could build connections made out of a fun and laid back event. This is the first in-person event the council is holding for career opportunities.
Ten employers will be available at the career fair to have in-depth talks on career pathways and conduct interviews for entry level positions to the companies, opening up the door to a long career in healthcare.
Mier said one of the purposes of the fair is to fight preconceived notions that healthcare is a closed off industry to the public.
“There’s a myth that we’re really hoping to dispel or show folks that there are jobs available in healthcare that don’t require two or four or seven year degrees, but jobs where you can really start today, and then work your way up within the organization,” Mier said.
Other vendors at the fair like GRCC and Aquinas College are there to talk about barriers in education when it comes to healthcare jobs, advising healthcare hopefuls in the next steps for certifications or degrees.
With healthcare being the largest employer sector in Michigan with 568,000 employees across the state, there is still a wide demand for entry-level health positions that start at a minimum wage of $15 an hour.
Mier said the benefits of healthcare jobs are having a clear pathway up the ladder to higher-paying jobs, with employers helping with tuition and training costs to get employees more responsibility in their job.
Mier said he was excited to see how much collaboration went into creating this career fair between healthcare providers in West Michigan.
“It’s a really great group of folks in the healthcare space that puts that competitive aspect aside that you might expect to see among employers in the same sector, and really sit down with a table and recognize that there are things we can do, such as career fairs like this, that benefit the industry as a whole and subsequently benefit each one of those employers,” Mier said.
Mier wants to see job seekers being able to interview for jobs while their kids play in the bouncy house, getting rid of the barrier of needing a babysitter to create job opportunities. Mier wants to make people as comfortable as they can be in the job market.
Below is the list of vendors and employers that will be at the carnival:
Employers
- Corewell Health
- Trinity Health
- University of Michigan Health-West
- Holland Home
- Cherry Health
- Hope Network
- Mary Free Bed
- D.A. Blodgett St. John’s
- Network 180
- Pine Rest
Educators
- GRCC
- Aquinas
Community Partners
- Goodwill
- Literacy Center of West Michigan
- Urban League
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