More than one-third of Croydon residents attending a jobs fair at Centrale shopping centre went away clutching an offer of work in their hands.
Signing up: the DWP jobs fair held at the end of February in the Centrale shopping centre
The jobs fair, organised by the Department of Work and Pensions and staged at the end of February, brought together 20 south London employers, including Humble and Grape, Carrington Blake, Prestige Cars, The Gym Group, London Learning Consortium and Superdrug, offering vacancies across hospitality, digital marketing, logistics and sales.
Roles on offer included commis chefs, computer programmers, delivery drivers and graphic designers.
Of the 150 jobseekers attending on the day, 55 were offered jobs on the spot.
Rapidly filling vacancies plays an important part in the DWP’s Way to Work campaign, which is targeted predominantly at those claiming Universal Credit and supports getting people back into work faster than ever before.
The campaign focuses on helping local employers to fill the record high number of vacancies with job-ready people allowing them to forge a fulfilling career.
Determined: Tory minister Mims Davies MP
Jobs fairs like the one at Centrale help to short-circuit the recruitment process by bringing jobseekers face to face with employers.
“We are determined to connect job-ready people with local opportunities and this jobs fair in Croydon is a fantastic example, with 55 young people getting jobs offers on the spot,” said Mims Davies MP, the Minister for Employment.
“Jobcentres across the country are ramping up support via our dedicated Work Coaches to push to get half a million people into new jobs by the end of June, as part of our Way to Work campaign.”
The latest DWP jobs fair being staged in the area is taking place at Gatwick today and tomorrow, from 10am to 3pm each day at Crawley Spectrum House Jobcentre, where 1,000 vacancies are available.
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If these are ‘good jobs’, this sounds brilliant. I’d love to know the retention rates of the 55 in a few months time – the best of luck to them all.