FAIRMONT– Area Career Exploration, an event to inform high school sophomores of the various careers available in the surrounding community, is making its return after two years of cancellations brought forth by Covid. It will take place on Wednesday, April 13 at Fairmont High School.

ACE is a joint venture between the Fairmont Area Chamber of Commerce, Minnesota Valley Action Council, Fairmont Community Education and Recreation and the Fairmont Area School District.

The first year that ACE took place was in 2009. It was initially started by former Chamber president Bob Wallace and Gary Ferguson of the workforce center.

“They were looking for new things to educate students,” said Chamber office manager Kandi Menne.

“The mission was always to expose area sophomores to careers in the area,” added MVAC coordinator, Tammie Hested.

This year, 11 area schools will be coming and bringing with them a combined 550 sophomores.

Menne said there will be about 150 businesses representatives, from 65 unique area businesses. There are businesses from Martin County and beyond, northern Iowa and some from State Departments based out of the Twin Cities.

Menne said she starts actively working on the event in November by letting the school districts know the date of the event and contacting area businesses.

“We try to get businesses in all areas so that students who are interested in healthcare or ag can talk to someone,” Hested said.

Prior to the event, all students will be given a 50 page Resource Guide which includes an interest assessment which will tell them what areas they should look into. Based on interests, there are 16 different career clusters.

“We encourage them to visit the businesses in that career cluster,” said Menne.

The guide also includes different careers within each cluster, as well as the education and training and average salary for each job. On the day of the event, students can go around to the different booths in the gym and ask questions to the representatives of that business.

Hested said all of the businesses try to come up with an interactive game so that the students can have fun with it. Many of them also have pens, keychains or other goods available to give students.

“They’ve gotten really creative with what they bring to entice the kids to talk to them,” Menne said.

Hested enjoys seeing how surprised students are to learn of what’s all available in the area.

“So many of the students think there’s nothing here and they walk into the gym and see all of these businesses and people who are there to talk to them and guide them. I think it’s one of those moments where they say, ‘wow,'” Hested said.

In addition to the business booths set up in the gym, there’s a panel of individuals who work at area businesses and are also graduates from area high schools who will talk to students in the Performing Arts Center. They’ll talk about their journey including schooling or training and employment.

“I try to get a diversity of stories. I don’t want all college graduates. I get a mix of backgrounds,” Hested said.

She said traditionally students have been really interested to hear the different stories and that the goal is to have every student connect with one of the speakers on stage.

“There are a lot of ways to be successful in life and they don’t all include college,” Hested said.

New this year is that after the event for sophomores, businesses have been invited to stick around for a job fair so that juniors and seniors can come and ask questions.

Hested said they’re doing this because they missed the juniors and seniors the last two years, and because so many businesses are looking for workers.

Menne said about half of the businesses are staying and while they may not have jobs suitable for juniors and seniors, they’re eager to make connections.

Several months ago, the organizations behind ACE also launched a website, areacareerexploration.org, that also has information about dozens of different businesses in the area. The website can be accessed year-round by students or anyone else who wants to know more about local career opportunities.