West Hawai‘i students to meet employers at Mauna Kea hiring blitz

A West Hawai‘i hiring blitz has already shown what can happen when students meet employers face-to-face: in an April 2023 pilot at Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, eight of nine Honoka‘a High and Intermediate School seniors who interviewed were hired the same day.

That result is part of the draw for ClimbHI’s annual Hiring Blitz at the Mauna Kea Resort Ballroom, where about 150 students from eight West Hawai‘i high schools were set to take part. The event was aimed at students 16 and older and gave them a direct shot at internships, apprenticeships, trades jobs, entry-level positions and training opportunities instead of a more typical career fair built around brochures and handouts.

ClimbHI says its mission is to help students finish high school and move into post-secondary education or employment by showing them what career paths exist and what it takes to reach them. The nonprofit’s hiring-blitz model is built to compress that process into one day rather than weeks or months, a format that matters on Hawai‘i Island, where families often worry about whether young adults will be able to find stable work and stay local after graduation.

The group has used West Hawai‘i as a testing ground for that approach. During the 2023 pilot, more than 60 businesses and organizations participated, with transportation provided by Polynesian Adventure Tours and Roberts Hawaii and space donated by The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort. Following that blitz, Mauna Kea Beach Hotel hosted nine interested Honoka‘a, Hilo and Kohala High School seniors, and eight were hired the same day.

ClimbHI has since expanded the model into a broader workforce pipeline that includes exposure fairs, job readiness activities, site visits, internships and job shadowing. On Sept. 3, 2024, its West Hawai‘i exposure fair at The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort drew 400 students, 20 teachers and 60 entities, underscoring how quickly the program has grown beyond a one-off event. A ClimbHI career fair at Mauna Kea Resort in early 2026 drew nearly 500 high school students, further establishing the resort as a major venue for career exposure on the island.

For West Hawai‘i employers, the appeal is immediate staffing. For students, the larger question is whether a one-day blitz leads to real hires, paid career pathways and reasons to build a future on island. The latest event was designed to answer that in real time.