YCLA Alumni Raquel Solomon and Training Manager for Foster’s Food Fair at the jobs seminar hosted by John Gray High School, on Thursday, 17 June.

By Steven Knipp
steve@caymannetnews.com

Raquel Solomon, a 2009 Young Caymanian Leadership Awards (YCLA) Alumni, was one of the keynote speakers at a special jobs advice fair hosted by the John Gray High School Hope Committee, on Thursday, 18 June.

The evening event, which was held at the Elmslie United Church Hall, was organised by John Gray High School in conjunction with YCLA Alumni to help recent graduating students with their future career plans. The Alumni of YCLA have in fact been working with the high school for the past year.

The seminar attracted more than 30 new graduates that flocked to the Church Hall to hear expert advice from nearly a dozen of the country’s top human resource managers and recruitment administrators, who had volunteered their time to meet with the students.

Ms Solomon, who is herself a Training Manager at Foster’s Food Fair, told the students that her heart was warmed that so many students showed up “and all dressed so smartly.

“Tonight,” she said, “we are not going to talk about why you are not going to continue your education further. Tonight we are going to respect your decision to join the work force, and to do that we want to help you.

“Tonight’s event,” she said, “has been organised by the YCLA Alumni in collaboration with volunteers from the Cayman Islands Society of Human Resources Professionals. We have human resource managers, training managers, recruiters and administrators from some of the largest companies on the island here tonight, and they are here just for you!”

Among the volunteers at the event were senior human resources staffers from UPS; Cayman Office 2000; Cayman Distributors; Dart Management; Butterfield Bank; Motor & General; the Department of Tourism; Walkers; the Water Authority, Grand Cayman Beach Suites, Caribbean Utilities Company (CUC) and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

“Tonight our objective is to share with you,” Ms Solomon said, “ from our experiences, the ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ of the job search, interviewing, and also what is expected once you are employed. In assisting you with this key information, we raised the bar. From this evening, we can expect to see a higher quality candidate, to seek employment.

“Tonight’s session,” she concluded, “should help you meet our expectations, and so increase your chances of actually getting that job. I believe that I speak for every human resources professional here tonight when I say that it is our greatest wish that each of you become and successful and productive employees. Maybe even with one of our companies. We want to hire you. Help us help you. I hope each of you have come prepared with questions, because we have a lot of information to share with all of you.”

The large assembly then broke into smaller groups, each group representing a specific career field, such as banking, tourism, insurance, with a handful of students then being able to talk one on one with a human resource manager expert in each particular field.