Newry Chamber Young People's Skills Forum & Expo in partnership with NMD Labour Market Partnership

There was fantastic engagement at Newry Chamber’s first-ever Young People’s Skills Forum & Expo held on Friday 20th March in the Canal Court Hotel & Spa with 200+ Year 10 students from 13 of our local schools across the Newry, Mourne and Down Area in partnership with our colleagues in NMD Labour Market Partnership.

As a Chamber, we see it as a major part of our work to make our young people aware of the incredible careers available to them, right on their doorstep within our local businesses.

The aim of this first of its kind event in the local area was to encourage our young people to ‘DREAM BIG’, to light a spark within them and as they decide to pick their GCSE subjects for the upcoming academic year, to start thinking about all of the potential careers the decisions they are currently making, can eventually lead to in the future.

A special word of thanks to our nine partner businesses for supporting the event as well as Southern Regional College and Queen’s University Belfast who were there on the day to highlight the various vocational and academic options open to our young people in attendance after they have taken their GCSE’s and A-Levels.

The day consisted of a mix of video presentations from senior staff members from our local leading employers at the event, panel discussions with young representatives from those businesses and time for the students to chat directly to the businesses in our exhibition area.

A big part of the day was to gather the thoughts of our young people, get their feedback on a range of different areas and we were delighted to hear that 100% of them would like to see more events like this, more of our local businesses visiting them in their schools and as a Chamber, we will play our part in continuing to facilitate this.

Conor Patterson, President of Newry Chamber said:

“I was delighted to witness the positive engagement between our young people and local industry representatives in relation to the endless career opportunities available to them right here, on their own doorstep across the Newry, Mourne and Down area.”

“Our young people are our future and the future drivers of the local economy so the event was important in encouraging the 200+ Year 10 students from 13 of our local schools to start dreaming big about the career they would like to pursue and making them aware that they can do that career within so many of our local businesses.”

“The Chamber has a fantastic relationship with our colleagues in NMD Labour Market Partnership, working together on a range of initiatives including our highly-successful Recruitment & Skills Conference and with 100% of students in attendance at Friday’s event, wishing to see more engagement between their respective schools and local businesses and as a Chamber, we will endeavour to make this happen.”

PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY: