A careers fair is an invaluable experience for employers like you to find the right young people to join your company. You may feel like you are adequately advertising your job or apprenticeship opportunity online, but there are many benefits to attending a careers fair and having individual contact with potential employees.
Meet Lots of Candidates in One Place
It can sometimes be hard to get your vacancy or opportunity out there to as many people as possible. You may be relying on people visiting your website or simply word of mouth in schools and colleges. However, this can be an unreliable strategy, as you aren’t actively engaging with those who might want to come and work for you. By attending a careers fair, you are ensuring engagement with lots of talented candidates, giving your business a better chance of taking on the best individual for the job or apprenticeship.
Spread Awareness of Your Company or Organisation
Careers fairs are beneficial in spreading awareness of who you are as a business, and what you do. Whether or not everyone at the careers fair will be interested in applying for an apprenticeship or job with you, it’s still valuable to introduce people to your business and widen your engagement.
You can sell your brand and convince graduates or apprentices why they might want to come and work for you. It’s easy for people to be attracted to larger, more well-known companies like the BBC or Google so small businesses offering excellent apprenticeship schemes often get overlooked. By attending a careers fair as a smaller business looking to recruit apprentices, you can show individuals face-to-face the benefits of working in your organisation.
Ensure Candidates Make the Most Informed Choices
It can be expensive and frustrating for businesses to have people dropping out of courses early or leaving a job because it is not what they expected. These scenarios may mean your business has to pay to recruit more employees or increase the workload. Therefore, it’s clear that hiring the right candidate is essential. By attending a careers fair, you can make sure that students fully understand what your business offers, hopefully, encouraging the best suited candidates to apply.
A Chance to Meet Similar Businesses to You
There are few opportunities for businesses to meet their competitors and see what they are offering in relation to their job and apprentice schemes. At a careers fair, you get the chance to chat with people working in a similar industry to you, possibly leading to collaborative working or sharing advice on how to recruit the best apprentices.
Build Good Relationships With Schools and Universities
Schools and universities host numerous careers fairs. By attending a fair, you can start to build a good relationship with these institutions, potentially resulting in a mutually beneficial partnership of helping find the right candidates for your business, and the right programmes for their students. Schools and universities are always looking for new businesses to provide work experience, internships, apprenticeships, and jobs to their students; by building your business reputation at careers fairs, schools and universities can trust your commitment to young people and view you as a reliable employer.
For more information on attracting apprentices, see our tips for attracting apprentices page.