Organisers are expecting average daily attendances of 30,000 at the FAS Opportunities '98 recruiting fair at the RDS in Dublin. The director of the fair, Mr Geoff Craig, urged visitors to bring their CVs as he observed wave upon wave of secondary school students enter the premises yesterday.
"It has just been bedlam, bedlam...When a DART comes in you just get a gush," he said.
Covering a diverse range of careers and training, the event was officially opened by the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Martin, who supported the training role of FAS and called for an attitudinal shift away from emphasis on university education.
"A vital need is to move away from a sort of snobbery which seems to believe that only degrees are worthwhile.
"This idea fundamentally ignores the role of apprenticeships, certificates and diplomas in providing people with valuable skills," he added.
He said that the focus on "ladders of progression" between educational institutions as opposed to within them should be increasingly important. "I believe that the difficulties faced by students in getting proper acknowledgement for sub-degree qualifications when applying to new institutions are simply unacceptable and act as a barrier to effective mobility," he said.
He added that a pilot scheme aimed at school leavers in the 8 to 15-year-old group would be announced next week, while an expansion in Youthreach, a scheme aimed at disadvantaged 15 to 18-year-olds, was already underway.
Mr Craig said that there were a range of openings for candidates, from the telesales and assembly line positions being offered by the main computer companies to hairdressers being sought by Peter Marks.
"It is difficult to quantify how many jobs you are going to fill," he said. But estimates from last year's fair indicate that 6,000 positions were filled. The fair, which is in its fourth year, has 140 stands spread through its `educational' and `careers' villages. It ends tomorrow.
The Opportunities '98 Website is available on http.// www.fasopportunities.com
