FORT RILEY, Kan. -- The first telenetwork job fair, which brought employment opportunities from all over, was held at Army Community Services Sept. 14. It was organized by the Employment Readiness Program staff at ACS.
Benita Edwards, ERP manager, said "in addition to the new work-from-home aspect, 13 Kansas employers from Manhattan, Junction City and Mission Police Department from Mission participated."
The event was open to veterans, transitioning Soldiers, military spouses and members of the Fort Riley community. There were 87 people in attendance during the half-day event.
According to Edwards, her department did a lot of research on online jobs and partnered with the Military Spouse Employment Partnership program to come up with the remote job opportunities.
"All the work-from-home opportunities that we have here today have been vetted through the Military Spouse (Employment) partners, so that way (job seekers) know they'll be getting something legitimate," Edwards said. "They partner with 500 plus organizations to help support our spouses throughout the world."
Edwards added the timing of the career fair was right after school reopened and the deployment of 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division.
"We wanted to have something in place for our military spouses," she said. "That brought in the focus of work from home for some of the spouses that wanted to be at home, and still have some income coming in while their Soldier was deployed, but I think the main focus was getting something in place once the children went back to school."
Edwards conducts an orientation each week to help anyone interested get back into the workforce or get a head start in seeking employment in the area if they are new.
Through listening to the needs of her clients, she was able to bring several potential employers together for a small-scale career fair.
"This being a mini event, I think it's a little bit more intimate for our spouses that they can come in," Edwards said. "And a lot of them have been pep talked with me, so I sort of know them and know their needs. And I sort of focused on some of the things that they told me during my intake with them, I reached out to some of the local employers that they were interested in and just brought them all together."
In the hustle and bustle of the event, Adrianne Burchette, ERP volunteer, stood behind one of the busiest tables at the job fair. But instead of a company's logo emblazoned on the front, it read, "Work From Home."
"I'm finding that a lot of people are very interested in working from home," Burchette said. "I think (the work-from-home option) is really going to benefit because you do find a lot of spouses, male or female, that want to work from home just because they have small children at home. They want to be there to give their child the care as well going to be home to make a living."
There were at least 10 different telenetwork job opportunities available during the fair and Burchette said most of the remote jobs do require employees to train elsewhere first.
"We have a lot of customer care, you'd have to go to those facilities and train," she said. "But when you come back you're actually in the comfort of your own home working every day. There's a lot of option and varieties out there for men and women who want to stay home and if they have small children, or they just don't want to be in a work office environment."
Burchette, who is also a spouse of a retired Soldier, said work-from-home employment does not only benefit stay-at-home spouses, but is also advantageous for transitioning Soldiers.
"A lot of Soldiers are transitioning, so it's helping them if they're either staying in Kansas or relocating anywhere else in the world," she said. "A lot of companies are offering jobs in 50 states, so that's a variety for people that are transitioning from the military back into the civilian world."
Holly Rivera, wife of Staff Sgt. Brian Rivera, Company A, 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, moved to Fort Riley in August. She's also a mother of three children, all under the age of 10 years old.
"It's a good event to have when you'd just move here and you don't know where to start looking for a job," Rivera said.
She hopes to find a job that would allow her to work from home or during hours her children are at school.
"I do have a degree in medical assistance, but I also do like customer service as well," Rivera said. "So I just kept an open mind about everything."
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