Thursday Apr 21, 2005

ExCeL London, April 2005 - Britain's premier recruitment, jobs and training fair, Careers & Jobs Live and the GRADfair, had another record year at ExCeL. 22,550 students, graduates and visitors attended the show, a 15% increase from 2004.

Commenting on the success of the show, Bruce Birchall, Exhibition Director, Jarvis Exhibitions: "This year's event has been a phenomenal success with more visitors to a careers event than we have known in recent history. The quality of personnel has been of the highest calibre ranging from graduates, job seekers, school and college leavers to the unemployed. The mix has been fantastic and we have had way over 100 very satisfied exhibitors."

Careers and Jobs Live had a huge variety of exhibitors offering thousands of opportunities to visitors. The show also featured the Thames Gateway Learning and Jobs Zone, which aims to highlight opportunities within London's Thames Gateway and beyond, giving the region's leading organisations the chance to meet some of the area's most promising recruits who are looking to work in Europe's largest regeneration zone.

Sir Robin Wales, Elected Mayor for Newham and Jim Fitzpatrick, MP for Poplar and Canning Town opened the show on Sunday 10th April. Exhibitors were delighted with the success of the show and quality of candidates coming through the doors.

Nina Burke, British Transport Police: "It has been really successful for us. We've had over 1,000 applications over the two days, which is very impressive. It has been a very effective way of raising interest for us."

Helen Fontaine, Reed Employment: "We came here to recruit candidates for a specific client and we have found over 200 suitable candidates so it has been very worthwhile, we have offered advice to skilled and unskilled candidates and have been very happy to be here."

Candace Bertie, SERCO Docklands: "It is an excellent show and we have had a really good turn out, we even ran out of application forms. We gave out forms yesterday and people have actually brought them back in today, in total we've had around 4,000 applications over the 2 days."

Dave Woods, British Gas: "We have had a phenomenal amount of people visiting our stand over the two days and we get a lot of benefits of being here."

Said Kevin Murphy, MD Exhibitions and Deputy CEO, ExCeL London: "Careers & Jobs Live has really flourished over the last few years and every year sees the number and quality of its visitors improve. It is great to be able to offer such a valuable event to the local community and provide so many opportunities in one place."