The Careers, Placement and Experience Centre’s investment, thanks to a grant from the Annual Fund, in a software package for virtual fair technology, has enabled the service to extend its traditional offer of careers fairs and provide students with a virtual environment in which to interact with employers.
Two virtual fairs are currently live: the Careers & Placement Virtual Fair and Law Careers Virtual Fair – both are available throughout the Spring term and have already attracted a number of student visitors, interested in finding out more about the organisations that are looking to recruit from the University of Reading. Student attendees can visit virtual exhibitor stands, click through to employer websites and view details of the opportunities on offer.
These virtual fairs are the online versions of the physical fairs hosted by the Careers Centre every year in the Palmer Building during the Autumn term – ensuring that as many students as possible are able to view the information supplied by exhibitors, over a longer period than the traditional afternoon events. This has been particularly helpful for those students that did not start to research career options until a little later in the academic cycle, or who prefer to interact with employers online in the first instance.
Students need to register for the fair through the online site, before browsing the information stands within the ‘Virtual City’.
The virtual fair technology is available for use by departments across the University for the delivery of their own events. To find out more, contact Employer & Graduate Manager Amanda Duggan (a.l.duggan@reading.ac.uk).
Looks very interesting, would it be possible to talk about doing a virtual careers fair for post-doctoral Research Staff?