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CARTERVILLE, Ill. (WSIL) -- A local college is offering a place for college students and job seekers to gain exposure to jobs all across our region. 

John A. Logan College hosted their annual job fair which drew in large crowds of individuals seeking to explore career opportunities. The college welcomed over 70 companies and hundreds of job seekers.

Participants came prepared with resumes and dressed for success. Companies attending ranged from employers like healthcare to construction management.

Employers offered a wide range of roles, hiring for apprenticeships, internships, part-time, and full-time positions.

Beth Stephens, Manager of Career Services at John A. Logan, says this is a great way for students and community members to be exposed to all the career fields the region has to offer.

"John A. is always looking about being more involved with our community and doing more for our community and I feel this is a really good way of outreach that we have for everyone to come to John A," says Stephens.

To gain traction to draw students into this event, college officials say they offered current students incentives like drawing for certificates and free professional headshots for their profiles. 

Stephens says it's been so successful with more than 260 participants attending just halfway through the event. Some employers even ran out of applications to hand out.

"We had to go make applications for several employers. They're already running out of applications. So, the employers will reach out to the students and hopefully they'll either find an apprenticeship, a job, internship, whatever they are looking for and we will support them through the process," said Stephens.

Officials from the Marion Police Department say the increase they've seen from last year is important in making face-to-face connections that online applications can't offer. 

Summar Albright with Marion Police says, "Being able to, like I said, make that face-to-face interaction. They know what to look for and what they need to do while going to college so maybe build that resume. If they haven't had specialized training for a job they're wanting they can go ahead and get that before they put their application in. It's just kind of a good heads up, a good building block to start here at a career fair."

College officials emphasized the importance of this event connecting students with the public. Organizers say this serves as a bridge between employers and job seekers just in time for summer internships or graduation right around the corner.