Hornchurch & Upminster MP, Julia Lopez, hosted her biggest jobs fair yet at Queen's Theatre to mark National Apprenticeships Week. Organised by her office in partnership with the dedicated team at Romford Job Centre Plus, Mrs Lopez's fifth Jobs, Skills & Apprenticeships Fair had 308 attendees and joined local employers to residents looking for new work and training opportunities.
Among the employers who attended to showcase live vacancies and apprenticeships were AstraZeneca, Mercedes Benz, BHRUT, HSBC, Elizabeth Line, St Francis Hospice, BPP Education and the Metropolitan Police.
Since 2010, the Government has created an apprenticeship system from the ground up and delivered over 5.7 million apprenticeships for people across the UK of all ages. Of these, 9850 have apprenticeships have been created in Hornchurch & Upminster alone, and Mrs Lopez hopes events like this will fill local vacancies and give people exciting new paths in life at whatever stage they are at.
Among those Mrs Lopez talked to at the fair was a retail worker who, at the age of 48 and after a period of time raising children, took up an apprenticeship with the London Ambulance Service that turned into a career she is now passionate about.
Building upon the Conservative Government’s successful record on apprenticeships, at the start of National Apprenticeship Week, a new teaching apprenticeship has been launched to offer a high-quality, alternative route for people to become qualified teachers. This is on top of record levels of funding in skills with investment to apprenticeships due to increase to £2.7 billion by 2024-25, helping to fund this world-leading skills and employment system.
Commenting after the event, Julia Lopez MP said:
‘As ever, I am truly grateful for the hard work and support from the team at our local Job Centre in Romford, without whom these events would not be possible. They are a remarkable group of people and play a very important role in the community helping residents transform their lives through work. I would also like to thank Queen’s Theatre for their ongoing support and for hosting our fifth Jobs Fair. Finally, I would like to thank all of the employers and training providers who attended today to discuss such a wide variety of opportunities with local residents.
These events provide a wonderful opportunity for us to connect local residents with the opportunities that are out there. Today’s event took place during National Apprenticeship Week and we therefore had an emphasis on employers and training providers with apprenticeship schemes. I am incredibly pleased to hear that 34 job offers have been made today, along with 57 offers of a second interview, beating the number of jobs secured at my last September event. I look forward to receiving updates from the Job Centre on further outcomes from the event.'
