Southwhitehavenlocal

CAREERS FAIR WAS JUST THE JOB

Last updated at 16:25, Thursday, 08 July 2010

FROM the Royal Navy to housekeeping, a West Cumbrian jobs fair drew crowds from across the area with its range of sectors and careers advice.

Colin Myers, HR manager at Studsvik, discusses job opportunities with visitors to the careers fair

More than 200 people visited the Job Search Live event – which is one of West Cumbria’s largest careers fairs – within the first hour of it opening.
Job Search Live, held on June 3 and organised by cnevents, saw Workington’s Washington Central Hotel crammed with all things careers-related.
Now in its third year, the event brought together the area’s top firms from manufacturing, to the armed forces and even training services.
But Job Search Live was no average jobs fair, the day aimed to provide a host opportunities for those looking for a new job, change of career or to retrain.
Major employers from throughout the region attended, including Studsvik and Center Parcs.
Academic and vocational learning providers, from Step by Step Education to the Open University, were on hand to provide advice and guidance to support job seekers, along with CV and interview specialists.Job Search Live’s return followed the success of last year’s event which saw hundreds of people drop into the hotel to speak to prospective employers.
It was the fifth event of its kind and attracted 16 exhibitors.
The opportunity to meet potential candidates face to face and see the maximum amount of people during the course of the event makes the jobs fair a popular choice with local firms and training providers.
Michelle Hodgson, of the CN Group recruitment team, said: “This year’s event has been even more successful than the previous one. Hundreds of people turned up to get advice on anything to do with careers and training.
“With so many exhibitors from such a wide range of local industries there was definitely something here for everyone.
“We saw everything from the armed forces to advisory groups, and even the training sector represented, so obviously lots of people took the opportunity to get some advice from the professionals.
“One thing that has struck us this year is the quality of candidates turning up to Job Search Live and their level of enthusiasm for training and work opportunities.
“A lot of the exhibitors have told us how impressed they’ve been with the number of visitors and quality of enquiries.”
Emma Elworthy, HR advisor at Center Parcs, said: “We’ve been really surprised by the amount of people who have turned up to today’s event and the interest we’ve seen in our stand.
“We’re here to promote and recruit for our housekeeping positions and within only a couple of hours of the Job Search Live opening, we’ve handed out between 30 and 40 information packs.
“The event is an important one for us on our recruitment calendar and we have exhibited every year. It helps to keep our profile up as a major employer in the area. Center Parcs employs over 1,300 people but the bulk of our staff are from this area so today is an important one for us.”
Jobs fair visitor Michael Ashbridge, 35, of Harrington Road, Workington, said he was recently made redundant and wanted to checkout the opportunities on offer at the event.
He said: “Since been made redundant recently I really want to find a career with a stable firm and an industry and nuclear seems to offer all of that.”
Sarah Tyson, 19, of Main Road, Seaton, said her friends came to last year’s Job Search Live event and got valuable advice.
“Since I left school I have been in and out of different jobs and I haven’t been able to find anything secure.
“I initially came to get help with my CV and interviewing skills, but I have been talking to the forces and the police exhibitions for career advice. If I could start with the likes of them then I would have a job for life.”
Jenny Straughton, 42, of Curzon Street, Maryport, is a full time mother of three and wanted to speak to advisors at Job Search Live for advice on where she could take her career.
She said: “I wanted to speak to someone face-to-face for advice on what could be available to me. I have been out of work for some years now as I’ve concentrated on being a full-time mum, but I really want to do something for myself now and start a career that would mean I have something of my own with once my kids are up and gone.
“I’ve spoken to a few people here today including the team at Trades Hall and even Studsvik, but surprisingly, I got a lot of help from those on the Open University exhibition who told me about what courses I could do from home.”
Emma Lynch, volunteers co-ordinator for Cumbria police, said: “This has been a very positive event and we’ve seen lots of interest in us. We’ve been giving out plenty of information packs about opportunities in our special constabulary which we’re actively recruiting for and in two hours we had 12 names on our list.
“At the moment we have 117 special officers and we’re looking to recruit another 40 over the next year.”
Job Search Live will run another event on Thursday, September 16, at Whitehaven Civic Hall.