By Alexandria Webb
FutureTech Careers hosts the Career Conversations series, which is an event series created to expose Grand Rapids Community College students to the tech and advanced manufacturing industries.
The event will take place on Monday, March 16, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Students can attend either in person at the Applied Technology Center in Auditorium 168 or online via Zoom.
“The Transferable Skills 101” workshop will have Linus Kaechele, the Program Coordinator for FutureTech Careers, as the fourth speaker to kick off the series.
“The Career Conversation series is an event series hosted by FutureTech Careers that aims to expose GRCC students to the tech and advanced manufacturing industries through career exposure events and skill-building workshops,” Kaechele wrote in an email to The Collegiate.
Kaelchele explains what to expect from this event and how these skills will be beneficial to students.
“Transferable Skills 101 is a workshop focused on helping participants identify transferable skills they’ve built in previous work experiences and understanding how they can apply to future opportunities,” wrote Kaechele. “This event is beneficial to students because it better prepares them for the process of finding a job after graduation! Understanding what transferable skills are and why they’re critical to basically every career will help students understand how to better pitch themselves to employers in interviews.”
Students can be intimidated when they leave college and go out into the workforce, yet Kaechele shares how these skills helped him after college.
“I was able to secure this role at GRCC after I graduated from college largely because I was able to articulate how the skills I built in my previous roles would help me thrive in this one. When employers look at resumes of early-career professionals, they see fewer years of experience than most job seekers have. This puts people with less experience at a disadvantage because they seem less qualified,” Kaechele wrote.
Kaechele further expressed how these skills allowed him to get where he is today.
“Being able to clearly articulate why I’m qualified and why I have the skills that this job needs was what allowed me to overcome that obstacle and get this job,” wrote Kaechele. “As I look forward in my career, the skills that will help me most are transferable skills. While technical skills are valuable, they aren’t applicable in every position. For example, I’m currently learning R (a programming language for data analysis), which is useful in a lot of jobs, but not every job. Communication, teamwork, and problem solving (all of which are transferable skills), on the other hand, are needed in every single job!”
Kaechele invites students wanting to learn more about FutureTech by booking an appointment with him.
“Students who are looking to learn more about what FutureTech and the resources it provides (like scholarships and internships) should book an informational meeting with me,” Kaechele wrote. To schedule an appointment with Keachele, he suggested using this link.
Students can look forward to this first event and take away skills that will further help them in future careers. For more information about the Conversation Series, visit RaiderConnect.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct the start of the Career Conversation series. The Collegiate apologizes for this error.
