Skills London is an annual careers event which has been held in the capital for the past ten years. This year, on the 13th and 14th November, tens of thousands of 15-24 year olds, along with their families and friends, turned up at the ExCel Centre to see the wealth of career and education-related exhibitions available. As well as tables manned by friendly exhibitors excited to share their knowledge with the young adults, interactive demonstrations and showcases also took place at regular intervals through the day.
As each person entered the exhibition hall on Saturday 14th they were given a handy event brochure, which not only detailed the timetable for the events taking place over the two days and boasted a clear, colour coded floor map, but also included extra nuggets of information about the exhibitors and some general tips, including a useful ‘Job Skills and Employability Tips’ section.
The room was divided up into career group sections, with STEM careers, hospitality and transport just some of the categories that featured. Within these, various companies and organisations had varying sizes of tables and displays set up, with T-shirted members of said groups at the ready to inform and entertain (if the occasion called for it), and most importantly, answer any burning questions.
Skills London aims to reach out to a multitude of young people – and it certainly opens itself up to as many different individuals as possible. Aside from the huge range of careers that it boasts exhibitors for, Skills London caters to young people in all stages of decision-making; a young person with absolutely no idea what they want to do is able to wander around at leisure, picking up any ideas and information they can lay their hands on, whereas a more directed visitor may find themselves heading straight for a particular section or even company that they are desperate to have a look at.
The event also included a section known as ‘Uni Street’, which as the name suggests, was a little alley of exhibitors from various universities across the UK, with volunteers at the ready to inform young people about courses, application processes, and to hand out glossy new prospectuses packed with information for individuals to take home and peruse at length. The range of universities was vast, with a huge table covered with leaflets on every course manned by four exhibitors from the University of Greenwich, which contrasted with the modest table held by a lady from Oxford University, whose attention the crowds of excited visitors were soon vying for.
The student response to Skills London this year was largely positive. ‘[Skills London] really gave me a better insight into the world of business, especially with the Big Four firms PwC, EY, Deloitte and KPMG being there,’ was a comment made by 17 year old student Aarthi Thangavel after visiting the ExCel Centre on Saturday. A key aspect of the event involved talking to people, as Aarthi went on to say, ‘I even managed to get a connection with one of the employees… and I know that without going to Skills, I would never have had her help’.
Due to its success, the event has already been scheduled for 9th and 10th December next year.
Sunita Ramani, Woodford County High School
