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Record breaking Careers Show attracts 6,000 visitors
Record breaking Careers Show attracts 6,000 visitors

The East of England Arena was buzzing on Friday as record-breaking numbers of young people from across the region found inspiration for their future careers. Now in its fifth year, the Mission Possible Careers Show is the biggest and most exciting skills and careers event in the East of England, attracting over 6,000 visitors and 230 exhibitors.

Organised by Opportunity Peterborough’s Skills Service team, the annual Careers Show aims to showcase the wide range of career opportunities on offer in the local area to 14-24 year olds, providing the chance to try out different skills and talk to employers from all sectors. Activity highlights included a Force India F1 simulator with a ‘Top Gear’ style leader board and Cambridge Science Centre’s COSMOS roadshow encouraging a love of science.

Exhibitors from all sectors were split into ‘Experience Zones’ ranging from ‘Creative’ to ‘Business’ to ‘Lifestyle & Wellbeing’, providing a huge amount of careers information under one roof.

XL Displays were one of many businesses advertising live apprenticeship vacancies on the day and the ‘Enterprise’ Zone was filled with hands on advice for CV writing, career progression routes and support for setting up a business.

Steve Bowyer, Chief Executive of Opportunity Peterborough, said:
“The atmosphere at the 2017 Careers Show was incredible and I was delighted to see so many young people being inspired by this fantastic event. I would like to thank all of the exhibitors who gave up their time to support the Show and help to make it such a huge success once again.”

Polly Davison, Global Talent Management Leader for Cummins UK who exhibited in the ‘Engineering, Construction & Manufacturing’ Zone, summed up the experience by saying: “It was such a good day. The future is bright, great students, great schools.”

The Skills Service was able to build on the success of previous years thanks to a collaboration with WorldSkills UK and funding from The Careers & Enterprise Company, the LEP’s ‘Signpost 2 Skills’ project and sponsorship from key local organisations. This partnership added several new features to the event including college students and experts demonstrating vocational skills through ‘Skills Competition Showcases’ and the opportunity to meet ‘Skills Champions’, young people who have excelled in technical skills.