HUNDREDS of job-hunters and career-changers were at the Daily Echo Job Fair, all set to meet their next employer.

The event, at Bournemouth’s Premier Inn, Westover Road, was a way to meet prospective employers.

The Job Fair also featured free workshops from Best Training to help people brush up on their job-hunting skills.

Daily Echo sales and events manager Angela Boyer said at the event: “We’ve had a regular flow of people looking for a new role or a new career. The exhibitors are reporting a very high level of quality in the candidates they’re seeing, with some already setting up interviews.”

The event was sponsored by expanding Bournemouth employer Health-on-Line, which employs around 400 people.

Its recruitment coordinator, Holly Reed, said: “Everybody seems quite enthusiastic. They’ve heard of us before which is really nice.”

Senior sales consultant Kristian Jayne added: “We’re looking for mainly sales roles and admin and finance roles. I think we’ve got a few people interested in those roles.”

Customer care consultant Kelly Frewin said visitors appreciated being able to talk to people who do the job they were interested in. “I work in customer service and I find that’s one of the departments that’s most interesting to people. It gives us a chance to have a conversation with somebody about what we do,” she said.

Suzy Orton, marketing and communications officer at the Westover Group of car dealerships, was there with HR administrator Cherie Reed.

Suzy said: “We’re looking for anybody from sales managers to sales advisers, sales executives, to after-sales advisers and technicians.”

Russell Edwards, operations manager with Poole firm TestLink – which maintains and repairs ATM cash machines – said he was seeking technical people as well as office-based staff to join its team of 130.

He said the company offered training in its field, with many former mechanics among its technical team. “It’s generally people that are good with their hands,” he said.

Morebus was at the event mainly to look for bus drivers – with an emphasis on attracting more women.

Driving instructor John Wilkinson said around a quarter of drivers were women. “The bus driving industry has always been male-dominated. We’re trying to change that,” he said.

He said customer service skills were the key to being a good bus driver. “We highly promote that. The driving skills, we can teach you that. What we can’t teach is people skills,” he added.

Marketing officer Joe Quinlan said the company offered flexible working patterns and an employee reward scheme. “We try to take care of our staff,” he said.