For Immediate Release
April 24, 2018
Contact:
Frederick Badlissi
(424) 646-5260
Edge4Vets Founder Tom Murphy (right) and an attending veteran discussthe importance ofbeing able to visualize the type of work one wants to perform before a job search.
(Los Angeles, CA) Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) and Edge4Vets hosted 27 veterans and representatives from 18 LAX-airport employers as part of its partnership to connect military servicemen and women to jobs at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Today’s workshop placed job-seeking veterans face-to-face with 41 mentoring hiring managers and HR professionals from companies like Southwest Airlines, the Hudson Group, Paradies, PCL Construction, Sixt Rent-a-Car, and others. This unique event allowed veterans to learn how to discuss the skills they earned during their military service with companies who are looking for skilled and motivated applicants. Today’s seminar also ended with provisional job offers made to four attending veterans, and appointments for interviews were extended to more than a dozen others. Officials expect that many of today's attendees will gain jobs over the next several weeks as a result of the seminar.
“For the second year in a row, we’ve connected veterans to great opportunities in the airport workforce,” said Paula Adams, LAWA Director of Airports Administration.“What many employers who hire vets find out is that they get more than an employee: they get someone who has been tested, who can work under pressure, and someone who gives it his or her all until the job gets done.”
“When it comes to hiring someone to do the job right, you look for someone who is dedicated, focused, and eager to learn, which is why veterans make great hires,” said Edge4Vets Founder Tom Murphy. “With Edge4Vets, we’re providing a great opportunity for veterans to get themselves past the front door and into an airport job that can become a promising career.”
Seminar attendees worked side-by-side with representatives from airport companies who acted as mentors, who helped them identify their skills and values. Later in the seminar, attendees made direct connections with hiring managers and HR representatives. Veterans were able to ask questions and learn about job opportunities directly from the managers themselves, while the attending companies learned about the veterans’ experiences and expectations. Available positions from these companies included positions in information technology, aviation, law enforcement, engineering, retail, sales, and facilities maintenance, just to name a few.
The Edge4Vets seminar is part of a variety of job outreach efforts offered by LAWA. Others include job fairs throughout LAX-adjacent cities and neighborhoods; the HireLAX apprentice readiness program; the Jobs@LAX website for job vacancies at LAX-based companies; and other initiatives throughout the year.
The partnership between LAWA and Edge4Vets began last year, and included the initial rollout of the Edge4Vets “PREP” online module, an interactive, narrative-based utility that helps veterans translate their military skills into terms that resonates with managers, recruiters and HR specialists. The PREP course culminates in a “Plan4Success,” which helps to identify noteworthy skills and leadership experiences to make the candidate stand out.
Edge4Vets was developed by the Human Resiliency Institute at Fordham University in New York, and comes to LAX in partnership with Airport Council International-North America (ACI-NA) following successful program implementations at east coast and southern airports. Edge4Vets has provided jobs prep workshops for non-airport employers on the east coast since 2011, throughout New York, Massachusetts and Florida. Up to eighty percent of veterans who complete the workshops have been hired.
For more information about job opportunities with LAX, please visit https://www.jobsatlax.org. For learn more about Edge4Vets, please visit www.edge4vets.com.
About Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
LAX is the fourth busiest airport in the world, second in the United States, and was named Skytrax’s 2017 Top 10 Most Improved Airports.LAX served more than 84.56 million passengers in 2017.LAX offers 737 daily nonstop flights to 100 cities in the U.S. and 1,386 weekly nonstop flights to 88 cities in 44 countries on 73 commercial air carriers. LAX ranks 14th in the world and fifth in the U.S. in air cargo tonnage processed, with more than 2.2 million tons of air cargo valued at over $101.4 billion.LAX handled 697,138 operations (landings and takeoffs) in 2016.
An economic study based on 2014 operations reported LAX generated 620,600 jobs in Southern California with labor income of $37.3 billion and economic output (business revenues) of more than $126.6 billion. This activity added $6.2 billion to local and state revenues and $8.7 billion in federal tax revenues. The study also reported that LAX’s ongoing capital-improvement program creates an additional 121,640 annual jobs with labor income of $7.6 billion and economic output of $20.3 billion, $966 million in state and local taxes, and $1.6 billion in federal tax revenues.
LAX is also the second most popular airport in the world to appear on Instagram according to wego.com. LAX is part of a system of two Southern California airports – along with Van Nuys general aviation – that are owned and operated by Los Angeles World Airports, a proprietary department of the City of Los Angeles that receives no funding from the City’s general fund.
For more information about LAX, please visit www.flyLAX.com or follow on Twitter @flyLAXAirport, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LAInternationalAirport, and on YouTube at www.YouTube.com/laxairport1.
As a covered entity under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the City of Los Angeles does not discriminate on the basis of disability and, upon request, will provide reasonable accommodation to ensure equal access to its programs, services, and activities. Alternative formats in large print, braille, audio, and other forms (if possible) will be provided upon request.
