Skilled trades employers in Windsor-Essex are looking to keep college graduates in the area.
Industrial Mechanics students at St. Clair College were invited to a private job fair this week, which featured 25 local employers.
The school's Chair of Skilled Trades Rob Chittim says they've started doing these type of fairs a few times a year to help put graduates in the workforce. "We hear the negative all the time of the largest rate of unemployment in the country, here in Windsor, and the largest rate of unemployment for 18-to-30-plus-year-olds. And yet we have 25 local companies hiring today."
Chittim says 80% of St. Clair's students in pre-apprentice programs end up with jobs by graduation.
The school expects to train a thousand skilled trades workers over the next year.