Career Closet provides Lethbridge College students with free dress clothes

Student Services and Lethbridge College Student’s Association have launched their first annual Career Closet.

The initiative comes at the perfect time. The end of the spring semester is fast approaching and students are preparing for convocation, looking for jobs once they graduate.

The community donated throughout the month of March, providing students with professional attire for job interviews, as well as clothes for different industries, even items for trade workers.

Each student is given four tickets and can then choose whatever items they would like to take for free.

Nursing student Amber Whitstone says the program is a great opportunity for young adults because “a lot of clothes are expensive that are… professional.”

Geralyn L’Heureux is an employment specialist with Teamworks Career Centre. She says dressing the part doesn’t just help you look and feel more confident; it also tells potential employers what they could expect from you.

“If you’re attentive to the details about you, and you’re looking after you, that implies to the employer, without having to say much, that you’re going to take the time and make the details around your job and what you need to do.”

To go with the free clothes, the college’s Career Development Centre was also encouraging students to ask for help creating or fine-tuning their resumes.

Whitstone says this is very helpful since a lot of the students aren’t 100 per cent sure about how to handle interviews and resumes.

“I know when I was first making (a) resume, I was completely confused. I had zero idea how to do it.”

Megan Hebert, who organized the event and works as a career development coordinator for the college, says her goal is to give students what they need to take charge of their own futures.

“I hope that students become more engaged in their own career development.

“I think one of the biggest misunderstandings is that somebody will do it for them or give them the guidance that they need and we really want to empower them to be self-directed.”

Hebert is calling the first Career Closet a success, with around 120 students taking advantage of the giveaway and even more stopping by to check out the different resources.