On the 6th and 7th of October, we hosted our 8th annual Social Mobility Careers Fair, which for the second consecutive year took place online. This year’s event was supported by finance and stock exchange firm, CMC Markets and the associated charity, The Peter Cruddas Foundation.
We opened with an inspirational speech from Lord Cruddas, CEO and Founder of both CMC Markets and The Peter Cruddas Foundation. Lord Cruddas has been supporting our organisation and this event for over 5 years now. He inspired our young people with his career journey and encouraged them to remain motivated in their endeavours to life-changing careers.
CMC Markets and the attendees at the virtual fair.
We were also joined by some of the world’s leading companies across an array of industries who gave our attendees an insight into their organisations. The employers included Weil, Accenture, Capita, PwC, HSBC, MediaTonic Games, Maverick Media, and Sky – some of whom have been Making The Leap partners for some time and others who are new.
The employers’ presentations were great– not only did they introduce their organisations and give insight into the live vacancies available, but they also explained the best way to use LinkedIn and gave some application tips.
The young people at Capita presentation.
We were happy to see over 200 young aspiring professionals looking to ‘make the leap’ and start their journeys towards excellent careers. We heard back from some of them and here’s what they had to say:
“All the presentations I attended were excellent and I learnt a wide range of information about the different job roles and divisions in firms and the application process”
“It was really helpful to know what other opportunities are out there in different industries.”
“It was such an incredible experience to see how various companies run their business. I particularly enjoyed how detailed they were in what they are looking for in candidates”
“I look forward to the opportunities I will hopefully access through MTL. Thank you for the event!”
“Really enjoyed the interactive presentations of all companies and the follow-up support MTL offers the attendees. Mostly after career’s fair one has to navigate the opportunities and tasks on their own but with MTL it feels like the support and advice is still there after the career’s fair as well.”
The event was an overall success, and we want to say a big thank you to everyone who made it possible this year. We are grateful to the attendees, employers, the brilliant MTL team, and especially our supporters – CMC Markets and the Peter Cruddas Foundation. We look forward to next year’s careers fair, where hopefully it will be in person and will help even more young people have better futures.
You can check out our training programme, helping 18–25-year-olds access opportunities. We can help you build skills and confidence to network, job search, interview successfully, and give you support to navigate your chosen profession after you’ve graduated from our programme.