MELFA, Va. — A new career center has opened at Eastern Shore Community College in Melfa with the goal of connecting residents with job opportunities and helping students gain real-world experience.
The Virginia Career Works Eastern Shore Center, located inside the college’s Workforce Training Building, is designed to serve as a one-stop location for job seekers, employers and students.
“We are actually the perfect place to house a one-stop career center,” said Dr. Daryl Minus, president of Eastern Shore Community College.
The center will offer services including career counseling, résumé building, mock interviews and job searches. College students will also have opportunities to connect with employers for internships and other hands-on experiences.
“Part of the vision is to be able to connect not just those in the community to these opportunities but our students right here on campus where we leverage our own career services for internships to be able to get them real-world experience,” Minus said.
Although the center has just opened, officials say they have plans to expand its reach across the Eastern Shore.
“It's exciting to be able to be a hub where we can bring together career services, résumé building, mock interviews, job search for job seekers, and all those things in one place,” Minus said.
The center is a partnership with the Hampton Roads Workforce Council. Sean Avery, CEO of the council, said the organization brings decades of workforce-development experience to the effort.
“This is our seventh center, so we've been doing this for a long time. We've been in existence for 52 years. We know how to do workforce development. We know how to get people connected to opportunities,” Avery said.
The center could also help major industries on the Eastern Shore, including the aerospace sector, connect with workers in the region.
Officials are also exploring satellite locations in other communities so residents who live farther from the college can access career services without having to travel to Melfa.
“We're gonna have satellite locations throughout the region, so individuals don't have to always worry about, ‘How am I gonna get to Eastern Shore Community College?’" Avery said. “We've already been looking at Cape Charles. We're already looking at Chincoteague, up that area.”
The new center is expected to serve both job seekers looking for employment and employers searching for qualified workers throughout the Eastern Shore.
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