Record-Setting Crowd Attends Teacher Career Fair - April 16, 2007

A record 800 job seekers attended the spring 2007 teacher career fair sponsored by The University of Texas at Austin’s College of Education. The career fair was open to anyone interested in securing a job in teaching or educational administration and drew over 160 recruiters from around the nation.

Government agencies such as the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, non-profits, regional Education Service Centers, the U.S. Peace Corps and private schools joined public school districts in attending the fair to find individuals with a strong education background and superior teaching skills.

“The job fair just continues to grow each year,” said Rita Moreno, program coordinator in the Education Career Services Center. “This year we had a number of first-time recruiters, including the New Orleans Charter Science and Mathematics High School, Anne Arundel County Public Schools from Annapolis, Md., and Lincoln Public Schools from Lincoln, Neb. People sometimes are surprised to hear that recruiters from as far away as Alaska, California, New York City and Florida attend this event.”

Now in its 11th year, the career fair continues to add new features that make the job-hunting process easier, this year introducing fingerprinting services that were accessed by 51 attendees.

“School districts now require that teachers be fingerprinted,” says Dr. Sharon Evans, director of the Education Career Services Center, “so we thought it would be convenient and efficient to give job seekers an opportunity to be fingerprinted at the career fair. There were lines at the fingerprinting booth most of the morning, so I think we did make life easier for at least a few future teachers – they can mark that to-do off of their list.”

As in previous years, the most avidly-sought candidates were bilingual, special education and math teachers.

“In addition to most all of us needing bilingual, special education, math and science teachers,” says Cyndy Pullen, human resources coordinator with Brazosport Independent School District, “in Brazosport we have the challenge of filling American Sign Language instructor positions this year. We’ve added sign language as an elective, so we’re keeping our eyes peeled for qualified teachers in that field, as well as any good candidates in secondary education.

“As most recruiters will tell you, it’s much easier to fill elementary school teaching positions than it is to fill the secondary level openings – coming to UT’s job fair always offers a pleasant surprise because you have such a large pool of future teachers. And, fortunately, UT has been producing many more special education teachers, so the difficulty in filling those vacancies has been alleviated somewhat.”

The Education Career Services Office also, in conjunction with the College of Education’s Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, sponsored the Kinesiology and Health Education Job/Internship Fair & Camp Day. The event was open to all students on campus as well as the general public.

Around 114 recruiters and 250 students attended the fair, and about 41 students accepted internships or positions at summer camps around the nation.

In addition to the 58 camp representatives in attendance, recruiters also included 59 health and wellness-related employers like Children’s Therapeutics of Austin, Well at Dell Fitness Center, City of Austin Health Department, Frontera Strategies, Pinnacle Elite Fitness and Georgetown Healthcare System.

—Kay Randall, University Communications, 512-232-3910