Need for workers spurs resumption of Healthcare Job Fair
It’s back by popular demand. Roane State’s Healthcare Job Fair was revived April 19 at the request of healthcare providers in urgent need of employees.
Employers kept calling, asking that the community college resume the event, Teresa Duncan said. She’s Roane State’s vice president of workforce and community development and director of Roane State’s Oak Ridge Branch Campus.
Sonya Parker, director of workforce training and development, said it didn’t take her long to recruit employers, who offered ballpoint pens, water bottles, ball caps and other swag to lure students to their tables.
At least 29 healthcare providers attended the event, held April 19 in the atrium of the Coffey-McNally Building. Before the job fair, participants were given tours of healthcare labs in the building.
There are almost 2,000 jobs open in Covenant Health, including 234 positions at Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge, Covenant Health officials said. Covenant now has some 11,000 employees throughout East Tennessee. Tennova Healthcare representative Kevin Minton, a 1994 graduate of Roane State, said Tennova has more than 200 job openings spanning a variety of positions.