Graduate Recruitment Fair
Satsuma brings major new graduate fair to London, as developments across London and the Thames Gateway increase demand for greater skills.
60 GREATER SKILLS
Graduate Recruitment Fair
Satsuma brings major new graduate fair to London, as developments across London and the Thames Gateway increase demand for greater skills.
Godwin Ohajah
For more information, on both events, visit: www. gradfairlondon. co. uk and www. tgzone. co. uk.
To enquire about stand availability call Godwin directly on 020 7366 6311 and mention Engage Magazine for a 10 % discount on all standard rate bookings made before 20th March 2008( subject to availability).
This spring sees the launch of the London & Thames Gateway Graduate Recruitment Fair, which will take place on the 4th & 5th April 2008 at the ExCeL Centre in London’ s’ Docklands.
The event comes to London at a time when Canary Wharf, the 2012 Olympic Games and other significant developments across London and Thames Gateway increase demand for greater skills.
Working with universities across London and the southeast, the event is expected to attract graduate talent from near and far. Amongst other places it’ s scheduled to be listed on the University of Oxford student website and students have already preregistered from as far afield as Bournemouth.
The London & Thames Gateway Graduate Fair is produced in association with the wider Carers & Jobs Live event, which in March 2007 had more than more than 120 exhibiting organisations and saw just over 23,000 visitors over two days, making it now the best attended event in the UK.
However, behind all of this excitement and undoubted success is an excellent example of mainstream companies working closely with a BAME run business, the Satsuma Consultancy … and many of them are completely unaware of it.
Set up in 2000 by Godwin Ohajah, the Satsuma Consultancy have for the last 5 years produced the Thames Gateway Learning & Jobs Zone, as part of the wider Careers & Jobs Live event in association with business partner Jarvis Exhibitions Ltd, organisers of the UK-wide Careers & Jobs Live series of recruitment and training events.
Godwin comments,“ The reality is that I don’ t think the majority of our clients think about supplier diversity when they contract with us and I don’ t think they should. I’ m not saying pro-active supplier diversity is not important, far from it! But I do think that the first thing to do is ensure that we produce a strong professional commercial offer i. e. a good show. Then it’ s more acceptable to start asking the questions and get to the root cause of the( lame) excuses that are put forward by some( companies) for non-BAME engagement.
He adds,“ We have worked with, and continue to work with a number of household names including the BBC, the London Fire Brigade and ITV News. As well as maybe lesser known but no less important companies such as the East Thames Group, the Teacher Development Agency for Schools( TDA) and Reed. In addition to those companies we also successfully work with colleges, universities and local authorities across the Thames Gateway region.”
He concludes,“ They come to the show each year because it’ s marketed effectively, well organised and helps them meet a diverse range of needs. In other words, it’ s good for their business.”
A few of the exhibitors expected across both shows this year include: PwC, KAPLAN International, Just IT, TDA, Kent University, Premier Global, Barclays, British Urban Regeneration Association( BURA), Tower Hamlets College, Easy Jet and Waitrose. engage | uk ISSUE SIX 2008