Over 1,000 Vacancies at BCCI Job Fair in Belize City

The Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) held its annual job fair on Saturday in Belize City with the goal of filling over one thousand vacancies. The event featured recruiters from approximately 26 businesses countrywide and saw participation from hundreds of job seekers. Andrew Usher, BCCI’s Marketing and Public Relations Manager, says the job fair was primarily to give people an opportunity to explore their options in the job market. He explained that the fair was rather successful from early on in the day, with people being hired immediately after speaking to recruiters.

Andrew Usher, Marketing and PR Manager, BCCI: “We have a steady stream of people coming out so far from even before 10 o’clock we’ve had people coming in. I think we are close to a couple hundred so far in the first hour and change of the event being open.  But again, it’s been a great experience to see the Belizeans coming out. You could see that people are really interested in learning about the job market, learning about what’s out there. And I think we have a really good variety of different businesses and organizations out here who are looking to employ people, whether it’s the initial interview process, because some people have that initial interview process out here and then they have a secondary interview that they do after.  But we have had a couple people, I say a couple but there’s a group of people that have already been hired by the different organizations out here, especially the BPO’s.  Their sector is very competitive when it comes to hiring.  So I know a couple people that have already been hired on the spot and they have a follow-up interview just to make sure that they know the expectations of the job that they’re going into.”

Reporter: And based on what you’re seeing is maybe is there a mix of young and mature persons or is it more maybe young persons? 

Andrew Usher, Marketing and PR Manager, BCCI: “Definitely we’ve seen more younger persons coming out and that’s not to say that the mature people aren’t coming but the majority are younger persons, persons that might have graduated recently from sixth form or from even high school, from the colleges,  they’re coming out and they’re really interested in being a part of the job market. There are jobs available at this time. We’ve had members and non-members participating here today  who are trying to fill these vacancies.  And you know, that might be for a variety of reasons, right? I think, you know, as I mentioned previously Belizeans are becoming entrepreneurial, we do have a lot more MSMEs coming up so people are becoming self-employed,  but there is the, you know, on the flip side to that, you know, there are people that are or businesses that are interested in hiring, they want to be able to fill these vacancies just because, again, the job market is very competitive right now and they’re trying to find qualified and skilled people to fill those positions and I think that’s really what’s important. They’re trying to match their needs to really fulfill their goals for the long run.”

Our newsroom also spoke with Alexandra Hendy, Human Resource General Talent Acquisitionist, at the Belize Bank about the company’s participation. 

Alexandra Hendy, Representative, Belize Bank: “We have a list of positions vacant presently and meeting with them today is just to talk about their qualifications and what they have that could contribute to the different positions that we have vacant today. Previously we had participated in 2023. We didn’t have many vacancies in 2024, so we weren’t able to participate. But it’s not that applicants aren’t applying. I think it’s just for us to have that one-on-one basis to talk with them, do those pre-screenings to let them know where they would fit better in the banking industry. There are individuals that are coming from the call centers that have customer service experience but they may not have cash handling experience but we always encourage people that there are certain things that we’re able to train.  So we encourage them to come out and apply  because you never know where you could fit at the bank.  And it’s just a good opportunity for us to meet applicants and talk about their different experiences that they’ve had and how they think they could contribute to the bank and the success of the bank, really.”

Reporter: We’re only like a couple hours in. What has the traffic been like so far?  

Alexandra Hendy, Representative, Belize Bank: “It’s been a lot.  I think this is my first break since I’ve been here. So it’s really good to see people coming out and being interested in different positions that we have. I know a lot of times people might say, “oh nobody wants a job.” but today really begs to differ.”

The fair was held at the Belize City Civic Center.