Hundreds of students and more than a dozen local employers packed into St. Clair College's Main Windsor Campus Jan. 28, 2026, for an opportunity to engage, network and even apply for open positions at the First Responders Career Fair.
Chip Menzel, a second-year student in the Protection, Security and Investigation program marked it on his calendar as a 'must attend' event.
"It helps me get my name out there and learn about the different opportunities that we will have after graduating from this program, and definitely make connections," said Menzel, who is considering continuing his education in the Police Foundations program.
He's hoping for a career in law enforcement, but attending the career fair opened his eyes to opportunities he hadn't previously considered.
"I've never considered the Navy or the Marines or any military," Menzel said. "There are so many options here today and so many people to talk to. It's just great."
Hundreds of students from a variety of programs at the College filtered through the career fair, eager to make connections and learn more about their professional futures.
"We have 15 different employers ranging from different services like policing, firefighting, EMS, security, park rangers, there's a wide variety," said Cody Brown, a Career Services Officer with the College's Genesis Experiential Learning and Career Services Centre.
"This is probably one of our most well-attended events that we host in the career fair world," Brown said. "Students in these programs are very involved, very community oriented, so they love to take any opportunity that we can provide them to try and be successful in terms of searching for careers."
One of the more popular booths is hosted by Caesars Windsor, which maintains a staffing complement of 150 to 200 security officers at any given time, and is regularly hiring new officers.
"We're promoting our security officer position, talking about the different opportunities," said Nicole Nimmo, a Recruitment specialist at Caesars Windsor. "A lot of our employees use this as a steppingstone to other law enforcement professions. We have positions that come up frequently, and we do mass-hiring three times a year for security."
Nimmo noted the bulk of the applications she receives are from St. Clair College graduates.
"We hire so many. Once they have their diploma, it'll automatically qualify them for the position. I put the application aside and when April and May rolls around, I will call them for interviews," Nimmo said, stressing the importance of breaking the ice during career fair events like this.
Parking is free for the event, which runs from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on the second floor at the Zekelman School of Business at Main Windsor Campus.
Here's a list of organizations which attended the First Responders Career Fair:
- Corrections Ontario
- Caesars Windsor
- Canada Border Services Agency
- Ontario Provincial Police
- Chatham-Kent Police Service
- Paladin Security
- Essex-Windsor EMS
- Ontario Parks
- LaSalle Police Service
- Toronto Police Service
- HMCS Hunter (Navy)
- Windsor Police
- Canadian Armed Forces
- City of Windsor- Fire
- Amherstburg Fire Department
