Municipalities use Career Quest to 'plant seeds,' grow future employees

By KATE COIL

Assistant TT&C Editor

At a time when many local governments are working to recruit the next generation of employees, a unique model in Northeast Tennessee is looking to inspire students to set out on career paths already available in their communities.  

Created by the First Tennessee Development District, Career Quest combines a trade show atmosphere, job fair, and hands-on, interactive experiences to better education students about what employment opportunities are available to them locally.  

A recent event, sponsored and hosted by the Sevier County Economic Development Council and the Sevier County School System, brought out more than 2,500 juniors and seniors from all five high schools in Sevier County to explore available careers. Officials with the cities Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville all participated in the program.  

Seth Butler, director of operations and communications with the city of Gatlinburg, said students spent 25 minutes each in four sections of the LeConte Center in Pigeon Forge learning from different employers. The city’s golf course, water department, fleet services department, building and codes department, and tourism and outreach were in one quad with other government, healthcare, and tourism companies while the city’s police, fire, and EMS were in another quad with local first responders. 

Butler said the program was a great way to showcase unique opportunities in municipal government.  

“There are a number of reasons we do this,” Butler said. “We are a bit isolated in Gatlinburg with not a lot of permanent residents. If you are coming to work for the city of Gatlinburg, 86% of our current workforce comes from outside the city. This allows us to show them different job opportunities we have and salary scale, because we have great-paying jobs that can turn into a career. We have a lot of examples of employees who started at the bottom and now they’re head of the department. You don’t have to move away to make a good career.” 

Lottie Ryans, director of workforce and literacy initiatives for the First Tennessee Development District, said the organization launched the program in 2017.  

“We were seeing businesses struggle to find employees, and we were seeing students not knowing what their future might be,” Ryans said. “Sometimes it was not having a plan after high school, sometimes it was wasting money in college because they didn’t have a clear path forward. This gave us a way to bring together business, industry, post-secondary education, and our K-12 schools to really introduce students to what careers are available in their region.” 

For many students, Ryans said it was a matter of not really knowing what jobs were available in their community or how to attain those jobs. 

“When I was meeting with people around the region, I kept hearing two things that stood out to me,” Ryans said. “One was that ‘our kids only know what mom and dad do,’ which meant they had a very limited exposure. We also had too many kids who didn’t see anyone going to work. We fortunately had business leaders who were introduced and stepped up. We invite police departments, fire departments, EMS, and power providers like municipalities and Bright Ridge because they have been struggling to hire.” 

Butler said his own career in municipal government was influenced by what he saw modeled at home.  

“My mother worked for the city of Newport for 38 years, and that’s all I knew growing up was what she did for her work,” Butler said. “We try to show these kids the different career paths and what’s available. They may be interested in being a contractor, but may have no idea that they could be a building inspector with great benefits. You have kids who also don’t have aspirations of post-secondary education. They can come work for the streets and parks and recreation department and work their way up. A lot of them know about the tourism industry we have, but not necessarily about other, great-paying positions.” 

Interactive exhibits catch the interest of youngsters at a time when attention spans are at an all-time low. 

“You draw them in with the interaction and then you have a conversation,” Butler said. “Our golf course brought out a putting green, and once they had them interested in that, they were able to talk to them about the different jobs at a golf course like turf grass management. Our service center for our city garage had a cutaway transmission. The building department went all out and built a mock crawl space for the kids to crawl through. The whole goal was to get them to crawl through this maze.” 

There are three other Career Quest events that are held across the First Tennessee Development District to focus on major industries in each area of the district. The event at ETSU focuses on advanced manufacturing, construction, healthcare, and IT. Another regional event focuses on business services like accounting, banking, financial planning, marketing, and HR that has a business pitch contest. Sevier County also hosts a Career Quest Event titled Hospitality Works, which focuses on industries like food and accommodation, outdoor events, marketing, and recreation.  

“It’s cool when you see a student who walks away saying ‘I know what I want to do now’ because they’ve been exposed to something,” Ryans said. “They may not get a job tomorrow, but they now have that exposure as they are planning their high school career. You are also promoting the industries in the area. I’ve had employers say they were at Kroger, and a kid walked up to them because they remembered them from Career Quest. We have also had people get internships and summer jobs.” 

For city employees, Butler said the program is also a chance to show pride in their professions.  

“It’s all about planting the seed,” Butler said. “It may not lead to a job directly, but it is opening eyes. It was very rewarding for the departments who participated. It was invigorating to spread what they do and why they do it.” 

Ryan said the First Development District are open to talking with other communities about how to start their own similar events with their local school systems and chambers of commerce. She said it is essential to ensure necessary stakeholders are on board. 

“They are hands-on events with very fast-past introductions,” she said. “We do a VIP event on the morning of the event where we invite mayors and city managers in first to walk the floor, thank the employers, and see what the kids are learning. We also have different speaker programs and a lunch. We have had students who participated in the program explain why this event was important.” 

Even without a Career Quest-style event, Butler said he recommends municipalities to try to connect with local schools to better educate students about career opportunities. He said Gatlinburg officials also do outreach in the city’s middle and high schools to get students thinking about future careers with the city.