The Isle of Man Graduate Fair returned last week for students to find our more about jobs available in the island.

It was aimed at students finishing school and seeking employment, and students studying for a degree who wanted to gain knowledge of opportunities in the island’s job market.

More than 200 people attended across the event that took place at the Comis Hotel on Thursday afternoon.

There were a number of stalls from different organisations that provided information to students about the companies and job opportunities that could be available.

More than 57 companies were represented from 12 different sectors.

These included hospitality, information and communication tech, finance and financial services, manufacturing and engineering, construction, utilities, maritime, BioTech and BioMed, e-gaming and e-business, aviation, public services, health care and education.

It was designed to be held at a time when those in their final year of university or school are thinking about the future and the next steps they wish to take in their career.

It was a chance for students to meet the people behind the companies who are actively looking for graduates, get a step ahead and leave with a standout CV, headshot and LinkedIn profile, and find out about graduate opportunities.

Many graduates and students expressed their astonishment at how much work there was on offer in the island.

In addition to the two rooms of stalls, there was another that contained three panel sessions featuring inspirational speakers who had all graduated and then relocated or moved back to the Isle of Man and are now making their mark in their respective fields of the island’s economy.

The first panel for the ‘CV Surgery’ featured panellists Emma Cox, HR director at Strix, Nicolle Rielly, talent acquisition adviser at Isle of Man Government Office of Human Resources, Sascha Horsthuis, director and head of marketing at Cycle360, and Lee Vorster, of Isle of Man Maritime.

Another panel called ‘Inspirational Islanders’ had speakers Phil Taylor, managing director of Rock Food Concepts, Rachel Grant, software development engineer at Derivco and mentor at Lovetech, and Kate Hegarty, managing director of KBH Marketing Agency.

The last panel session was all about starting a business.

The panelists were Thomas Walmsley, of Thomas Walmsley Videography, Laurence Crookall, from The Boredroom, and Nic La Merle, of Afundi.

Workshops were also offered, such as the ‘Graduate Employability Skills Masterclass’ which acted as an introduction to the Graduate Employability Training Programme which offers young people the opportunity to enhance their workplace skills through a free, two-week training course, as well as a ‘Graduates Guide to LinkedIn’.

l We spoke to students and graduates for our Word on the Street feature to find out how valuable the event was. More on page 10.