Opportunities lost as Croker job fair axed
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Friday December 19 2008
The annual Opportunities exhibition, which is run by FAS, has been cancelled for next year.
The exhibition, which is sponsored by the Irish Independent and supported by the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, has been held in the Croke Park Conference Centre for the past few years -- prior to that it was held in the RDS. The decision to cancel the 2009 exhibition, due to be held in March, was taken by the FAS board.
A spokesperson for FAS said that "an exercise will be conducted to examine the feasibility of alternative formats of exhibition models perhaps involving more regional locations over the coming 12 months".
The exhibition, which was attended by 80,000-100,000 visitors annually was one of the most successful in Europe. It provided information about education, training, apprenticeship and job openings for students, apprentices, trainees, job seekers and job changers.
The cancellation of the exhibition comes against a background of predictions that the unemployment rate will rise to 10pc next year and higher the following year.