It's not always easy to get your foot in the door of a career focused on a certain skill set, and that's what makes job fairs so important.

A major fair was held at the Genesee County Fairgrounds in Batavia on Tuesday with a focus on manufacturing.

GLOW with Your Hands Manufacturing welcomed more than 1,000 students from 30 school districts along with more than 70 exhibitors for its annual career exploration event. Companies across the GLOW region — Genesee, Livingston, Orleans and Wyoming counties — were there including major employers, trade unions and the manufacturing, agriculture and construction industries.

"The focus of today's event is really to help kids understand all of the amazing opportunities that exist in agriculture, skilled trades, advanced manufacturing and food processing right here in our region," said Angela Grouse, co-chair of GLOW With Your Hands. "So the idea here is giving kids sort of a window into that world. Let them roll up their sleeves, let them lay bricks, let them pound nails, let them get in and do some welding, let them run some CNC machining equipment, let them hook up with some vets and do some animal examinations. It's really about trying on the job.

"If you were going to college, you'd go out and visit colleges and see what they look like," Grouse continued. "You want to see what the world of work looks like. You want to figure out, 'hey, is this going to be a good fit for me?' And then, we want these kids to understand that whether you're going to work right out of high school, into a job, or whether you want to go the college track and get an extended post-secondary training or education, there are opportunities right here for you in the GLOW region."

GLOW With Your Hands launched in 2019.