Officials with Buckhorn Children and Family Services are pleased with the applicants who turned out for a job fair at the Perry County JobSight workforce center seeking skilled positions with the agency.

Ten applicants attended the Aug. 23 event seeking employment as either residential youth workers, case managers, or therapist/counselors at Buckhorn’s residential youth treatment facility in rural Perry County.

Patty Wilder, Human Resources coordinator for Buckhorn, said since two of those three positions—case manager and therapist/counselor—require bachelor’s degrees, the agency was more concerned with “quality over quantity” at the event.

“Out of those 10 people, four had bachelor’s degrees,” Wilder said. “All of the applicants had done their research on us and had their resumes ready, so they are really serious about this line of work.

“We thought (the event) went very well,” Wilder added.

As part of Buckhorn’s new partnership with the JobSight network, Wilder and Human Resources Assistant Julia Brewer have also worked to profile eight skilled positions at Buckhorn through the JobFit on-line job-matching system. JobFit will help the agency find additional applicants with the traits to be successful in those jobs by matching detailed profiles of job seekers’ skills, aptitudes, and personalities to the precise requirements of the specific jobs. Job seekers create a profile by taking an on-line JobFit survey that assesses their thinking styles, behavior patterns, interests, and skills, and then compares them to profiles of an employer’s best-performing workers.

A close match in all aspects of the JobFit profile greatly improves the chances that the employee will succeed on the job.

Jack Duff, manager of the Perry County JobSight, said he is pleased JobSight is able to help a major employer like Buckhorn recruit qualified employees from the area.

"At JobSight we're all about helping find jobs for people and people for jobs, so our partnership with Buckhorn fits nicely into that mission," Duff said.

The Perry County JobSight—operated by the L.K.L.P. Community Action Council just south of Hazard at Jeff—is part of the JobSight network of workforce centers administered by the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP). JobSight centers provide access to a dozen government workforce programs for job seekers and employers through a single location.

Based in Hazard, EKCEP administers government employment and training programs and employer services in 23 rural mountain counties.