Employers hailed the success of last week’s Leeds Digital Job Fair 2.0 which attracted more than 2,000 people through the doors of the city’s iconic First Direct Arena.
Forty-six exhibitors from the public and private sectors had stands at the event organised by online jobs board Herd to showcase hundreds of wide-ranging career opportunities in the region’s digital and tech sector.
Charlotte Goulding, a recruitment manager at NHS Digital, said: “It was the busiest job fair that we have been to so far this year and we spoke with loads of people all passionate about progressing their digital career in Leeds.
“The fair attracted people at all stages of their careers and we spoke to people about apprenticeships, our graduate scheme and opportunities for experienced professionals.
“We’re looking forward to keeping the conversation going with the nearly 200 people who signed up to hear more about working with us.”
BusinessCloud is hosting a major ‘tech in healthcare’ conference in November with speakers from the NHS.
Johnathan Nicolson, IT recruiter at Jet2.com and Jet2holidays, said: “We enjoyed meeting with some really passionate digital and technology professionals and talking to them about how technology underpins all the success we’ve had at Jet2.com and Jet2holidays.
“Our IT and Digital Team is made up of colleagues who are highly skilled and passionate about technology who deliver market leading customer experiences and hopefully some of the Herd attendees will be applying to join us soon.”
Amy De-Balsi from Herd – which put the event together with support from LeedsBID, Leeds City Council, Leeds Beckett University and First Direct Arena – said she was thrilled by the feedback.
“By common consent, the first Leeds Job Digital Fair in February set a new standard for technology recruitment events in the North,” she said.
“But we wanted to surpass this and, by moving everyone into the huge main auditorium and providing a larger area for employers and candidates to interact, we achieved our objective.
“There were more exhibitors, more candidates and more jobs available. We couldn’t be more pleased.”
De-Balsi revealed that Leeds Digital Job Fair 3.0 would take place at the First Direct Arena on Friday 28 April 2017.
“Such was the interest from potential new exhibitors in the run up to last week’s event that we thought it best to set a date for the next one.
“And our confidence has already been justified with a number of them, having attended in an observer capacity, now committed to taking a stand in April.
“The thriving Leeds digital sector was once a well-kept secret but those days are long gone with the ever-growing talent pool standing as testament to this.
“Herd is proud to be playing a key role in bringing tech candidates and employers together.”