Darlington Jobs Fair welcomes hundreds of potential employees

Countless employers attended the jobs fair and spoke with locals about opportunities.

Employers included Durham Constabulary, Kleek Academy, Darlington Borough Council, Amazon.

The Northern Echo headed to The Dolphin Centre to see what it was all about.

There was a huge turnout at the jobs fair. Picture: Aja Dodd, Newsquest (Image: Aja Dodd, Newsquest)

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People from a wide range of backgrounds attended the event and the hall was packed to the rafters.

Durham Constabulary was offering Police Constable Degree Apprenticeships and a Degree Holders Entry Programme, offering people a route into policing.

Within 45 minutes of the event starting, policing trainer Jeff Summerhill told us: “We’ve had a lot of interest.

“We’ve had six people genuinely interested so far.

“We’re offering these training courses to give people a route into policing, but they have to genuinely want to work in the police.”

Jeff Summerhill, policing trainer with Durham Constabulary. Picture: Aja Dodd, Newsquest (Image: Aja Dodd, Newsquest)

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Kleek Apprenticeships, formerly Saks Academy, based on Duke Street, had had loads of interest.

Tegan Chapman, academy manager, said: “We’ve had a lot of refugees interested in us. A lot of them started training in different countries and want to know how to continue it in England.

“We’ve also had a lot of men sign up. We’ve got about 20 per cent of our students are men which is really good.”

Tegan Chapman and Lauren Gaffney from Kleek Apprenticeships. Picture: Aja Dodd, Newsquest (Image: Aja Dodd, Newsquest)

Next, we spoke with The Youth Employment Initiative in association with Darlington Borough Council.

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Andy Cruddace from the scheme said: “We’ve had far too much interest! We’ve had loads of people sign up today. We work closely with Cummins, Students Loans Company, Amazon and EE.”

Andy Cruddace from Darlington Borough Council's Youth Employment Initiative. Picture: Aja Dodd, Newsquest (Image: Aja Dodd, Newsquest)

Daniel Mearns from The Eureka Programme was promoting the two-day course of how to start your own business.

The course is for anyone over 19 in the Tees Valley who is not in employment.

Daniel Mearns said: “Plenty of people have been interested. Some people have said they want to start a business because they don’t want a stressful job, but starting a business is stressful.

“If you have something you’re passionate about though and you’re able to make some money from then that’s brilliant.”

Daniel Mearns from The Eureka Project. Picture: Aja Dodd, Newsquest (Image: Aja Dodd, Newsquest)

Darlington Jobs Fair at The Dolphin Centre. Picture: Aja Dodd, Newsquest (Image: Aja Dodd, Newsquest)

At least 200 people attended the jobs fair. Picture: Aja Dodd, Newsquest (Image: Aja Dodd, Newsquest)