You’re never too young to start planning for your career — that was the message for CedarBridge Academy students who attended the school’s inaugural Vocational Career Fair.

A host of local businesses, including Orchid Nail Spa, BTC, Market Place, The Fairmont Hamilton Princess and Southampton Princess, Noble Auto, Onion Patch Nursery, The Department of Corrections and BELCO, were on hand offering information and advice on different careers.

The fair — open to all Cedarbridge students — had a theme of ‘Endless Possibilities’.

Tanya Simmons, the Instructional Leader of Learning Support, said the school decided to host its own career fair in order to expose young people to different kinds of work.

“A lot of times when you go to the other career fairs they tend to focus on the careers in insurance and business, which is great, but we wanted to provide an opportunity for the children to be exposed to some of the trades,” Ms Simmons said.

“We thought it would be beneficial, especially because we have a lot of students looking to get into more vocational careers like carpentry, hairdressing or work as a firefighter or police.”

Speaking at the recent event, Ms Simmons said the event was going “better than anticipated”.

“It has been a very good response by the community and all the businesses have responded very well,” she said. “It’s a good turn out and a nice variety of fields represented as well.

“I want the student to leave from here feeling inspired and hope they find a possible career, if they haven’t already decided what they want to be.”

Eighteen-year-old Asiah Joell said she came out to the fair to get information on different career possibilities.

“I was most interested in information about the Corrections Officers because I’m interested in that field,” she said.

“I am involved in a police programme right now. I want to be a forensic scientist so for work placement in S3 I got placed in the police department and got to do mock court trials and things like that. I feel there is a need in Bermuda for more people in that role, most definitely.”

Miss Joell said she plans to go to Bermuda College in the fall.

The fair wasn’t just rewarding for the students; many of the local business professionals enjoyed themselves as well.

Gnica Brangman, owner of Orchid Nail Salon, said: “The inquisitive minds and the curiosity have been really great to see.

“The students have been asking questions about what skills are needed and the opportunities available in the industry.

“Someone asked if training to be a nail technician was limiting, but I encouraged them not to just do the nail technician course, but rather take all the beauty or cosmetology courses so they have a diverse range of skills to add to their resume.”

Gladwin Simons, from the Department of Corrections, agreed that the best part of the day was seeing the students learn and engaged with what they were saying.

“They are full of questions as far as what it entails being a corrections officer,” he said. “Just seeing their eyes light up when they take part in the ice breaker [a small activity we set up] and they get prizes, but it’s just great hearing them ask questions about things like wages and what positions are available.

“One girl wanted to be a forensic psychologist and it’s great because people just see the uniform and think it’s just the guard locking the prison door, but we have people on staff who are psychologists, health services and case managers.”