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New and diverse job opportunities continue to come to Pinal County. Employers like Lucid Motors, Abbott Nutrition, Resolution Copper and Nikola are seeking employees with a variety of skills, experience and education. A new app called Achieve Pinal’s Virtual Career Expo has been created to help Pinal County residents learn about careers that are in the county and how to prepare for them.
Achieve Pinal, a project of the Pinal Alliance for Economic Growth, is a community based effort dedicated to building a more competitive workforce through education and has developed the new app. Abbott Nutrition and Resolution Copper have sponsored the app’s development and ongoing updates. “The pandemic has forced communities to adapt to alternate ways of learning, working and meeting. Virtual learning, telework and Zoom meetings have become the norm. Achieve Pinal’s career exploration efforts also adapted to successfully reach our Pinal County audiences during the pandemic and into the future,” said Bob Jackson, Career Expo Committee Chairman.
Career Expo is a free app, accessible to all, offering information about careers in Pinal County. The app offers a career exploration experience with professionals in a variety of careers. Career fields have been identified in partnership with ARIZONA@WORK. Some of the highlighted careers in the app include: Robotics, Cyber Security, Education, Veterinary Medicine, Public Safety, Utilities, Trades, Advanced Manufacturing/Technology, Medical, Finance, Agriculture, Hospitality and Engineering.
Careers showcased in the app will continually be updated to reflect the dynamic changes occurring in Pinal County. New and exciting careers are coming to the region and employers are seeking qualified workers. In addition to new employers, longstanding Pinal County employers are experiencing ever changing work environments and their careers will be highlighted in the app as well.
The labor analytics firm, Emsi, that ranks counties by various economic development factors, announced the results of their recent study last month. The study evaluated counties in terms of migration, overall job growth, skilled-job growth, educational attainment, regional competitiveness and annual job openings per capita. The study analyzed 601 counties throughout the United States including nine of Arizona’s 15 counties.
Pinal County was the second-highest ranked county in Arizona and 29th in the nation. The Emsi report also stated that small and medium sized markets are becoming more attractive to workers rather than living in a larger, metropolitan area. The Career Expo app will aid students, workers and employers to access information about the exciting job opportunities in Pinal County. The county’s job growth and job openings are amongst the best in the state and nation.
“During this unprecedented and challenging time, we have found new, different ways of connecting with each other. This mobile app provides students the opportunity to learn about careers in Pinal County through interactions with business professionals. A big thanks to the Pinal Alliance organization for leading this critical initiative,” said Angela Doerr, Abbott Plant Manager.
Jobs are changing rapidly. This is a period of unprecedented change and the pace is accelerating. Technology is impacting work more and more everyday. Many jobs will require education beyond high school. Currently in Arizona, only 45 percent of adults have education beyond a high school diploma. Pinal County is currently at 36 percent. In order for Arizona to be competitive, increasing the number of individuals who are equipped with a high value professional certificate or degree, is an area of needed improvement.
“The students in Pinal County are the future of our community, and we want to do whatever we can to make sure they have access to an innovative experience that builds career exploration, connects students to employers, and improves post-secondary attainment,” said Bryan Seppala, Resolution Copper Economic and Workforce Development.
To access the free app, visit the App Store and download CrowdCompass Events and search for Achieve Pinal’s Virtual Career Expo. The app can also be accessed via any browser at: https://event.crowdcompass.com/virtualcareerexpo
Achieve Pinal is a regional grassroots effort dedicated to working with education, government, business and other interested community partners to develop a competitive workforce for future jobs by improving educational attainment in Pinal County.
There are news or informational items frequently written by staff or submitted to the Copper Basin News, San Manuel Miner, Superior Sun, Pinal Nugget or Oracle Towne Crier for inclusion in our print or digital products. These items are not credited with an author.
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