They'll be no shortage of candidates for one local business who is in the process of expanding in Chatham-Kent.
On Tuesday, AgMedica Bioscience Inc. hosted a 12-hour job fair at the John D. Bradley Convention Centre in Chatham.
AgMedica is a licensed producer of medical marijuana. The job fair was a way for the company to fill up to 70 future positions in its cultivation department. According to Human Resource Manager Wendy Teetzel, they had about 300 people attend the job fair by the halfway point.
"Its been very, very positive. The candidates that we've been getting through today are very qualified," she said. "I think having the word out there ahead of time about what we were looking for, as far as the candidates and the skills and qualities that we needed them to have, getting that message out ahead of time has really helped us get really good qualified candidates in the door today."
Attendees were interviewed and according to Teetzel, the human resource department will be reviewing applications and calling back selected people for a second interview. The company is currently in the construction phase of its expansion and awaiting approval for their Health Canada licence. Teetzel said there isn't a concrete start date for the new employees yet, but they are aiming to get them on board by early fall 2019. She added that they expect more positions to come up in the future.
"We are wanting to identify the candidates now so that we can have those conversations with them in hopes of offering them a position in the near future," she said. "This is our first phase of hiring for what we call phase two, for our expansion. But we will be continuing to be hiring here in Chatham kent for the next couple of years I'm sure, as we continue to expand."
For anyone who wasn't able to make it to the job fair, Teetzel suggested visiting AgMedica's career page on their website.