Patrice from O2 Shop, Enniskillen
FOR Patrice Ryder, from Belleek, the decision to attend the Fermanagh jobs and careers fair last year at the South West College proved a positive one.
The 23-year-old who was unemployed at the time, attended the fair with friends and was surprised at the opportunities on offer.
At last year’s event, employers in attendance included Fermanagh District Council, Donnelly Motor Group, Quinn Group, Kerry Foods, Waterways Ireland, ASDA, PSNI, Lough Erne Resort, DEL, Grafton Recruitment and South West College among many other private and public sector bodies.
On October 2, a similar number of employers will convene for this year’s event.
The event is open to everyone and is for job seekers across all age groups including graduates, anyone wanting to return to work after a period of leave, anyone seeking a change of career, first time entrants to the job market or anyone who has taken early retirement and wants to return to work.
And, among those in attendance last year was Patrice, who had recently returned from Australia and was seeking employment.
“I had been unemployed at the time for quite a while. I’d just come back from Australia and I went to the jobs fair needing work – I hadn’t been to anything like it before,” she explained.
“I would have applied for jobs from the paper and things like that. I was with a few of my friends and a few opportunities came up for them as well.”
The opportunity came to work at O2 Enniskillen with owner of Dev Retail (Pizza Hut Delivery, Enniskillen and O2 Enniskillen), Declan Devlin, recruiting at the event.
Declan explained: “We’ve always been recruiting in the Fermanagh area so we thought it was a good opportunity. There was a lot of interest from other businesses and it was a good opportunity to bring everybody locally together at one time for a jobs fair.
“And we were lucky that Patrice came along because she was exactly what we were looking for at the time.”
Patrice went on: “I had worked in retail before. Declan was looking for people at the time, and I was happy that he’d took me on. I didn’t actually expect to get anything out of it.
“My role now is sales advisor – I meet and greet people, sit them down and speak them through things, it’s something I definitely enjoy.”
For those thinking of going to the jobs fair, Patrice added: “I’d say definitely go along – it’s a great opportunity to see what’s out there and what employers are looking for.”
The event on October 2 is free to attend and open to everyone seeking employment or employment related advice.
The Fermanagh jobs and careers fair is supported by ‘South West College’ and the ‘Fermanagh Herald,’ in partnership with ‘Business in the Community’.
Further details can be obtained from Fermanagh Herald, HR Manager, Julie Hetherington, hr@northwestnewsgroup.com , t:028 8241 5006. www.north-westjobs.com.
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