Skills West Midlands

• Welcome

  Skills West Midlands is the biggest skills and careers event happening in the region. Aimed at 15-24 year olds this free event will inspire and motivate. Hands on interactive features will give you a chance to get a real taste of different future career options whatever your dreams or ambitions.

• Visit

  Get along to Skills West Midlands, the region's biggest skills and careers event for 15-24 year olds. Whether you're at school or college, starting work, a teacher, parent/carer or family this is the one event that could change your future. Visit and be inspired, motivated and thrilled with over 70 organisations providing interactive features from every major career sector imaginable.

  • What's On and When?
    
  • Who's There?
    
  • Book Yourself
    
  • Book Your Group
    
• Exhibit

  Why Exhibit?

  West Midlands Skills will be the region's biggest skills and careers event for 15-24 year olds. As an exhibitor you will be meeting the next generation of employees for your organisation. With the emphasis on interactivity visitors get the chance to touch, feel and experience first hand the huge range of careers available and you get the chance to show what your organisation has to offer.

  • Event Format
    
  • Exhibitor List
    
  • Who Will Visit?
    
  • Visitor Promotion
    
  • Stand Prices
    
  • Tell Me More
    
• Book now
• Getting there
• Contact us
• Watch the latest video

Whatever your dreams or ambitions there will be something to inspire you at Skills West Midlands. The event is the place to try out your future and get hands on with the exciting demonstrations. Get a makeover finding out about careers in beauty therapy, fix a car finding out about a career in motor mechanics, blow your top finding out about careers in chemistry.  Wherever you want to go in the future, find your route at Skills West Midlands.

Opening Times 

Wednesday 21 March 2012
9.30am – 3pm and 5pm - 7pm

Thursday 22 March 2012
9.30am – 3pm

You can visit Skills West Midlands at any time. With so much to see we offer special staggered slots for big groups so everyone gets a chance to try the interactive features. We recommend visiting the event for approximately two hours.

Get inspired with great interaction

Skills West Midlands has Have a Go areas, a University Street, college demonstrations, employers and much more.

You’ll be able to try activities including the Five Nail Construction Challenge and Create an Outfit with Burton and South Derbyshire College as well as ice cupcakes meeting catering students, try an Augmented Reality interactive demo, test your grip strength against their sports tutors before creating a collage or dressing a mannequin with Hereward College.

Kaplan will be offering £5 shopping vouchers to winners of their apprenticeship quiz, the Army will be showing visitors around a real tank and South Birmingham College will be offering a taste test with their catering team and free mini manicures with their health and beauty students. But if you are looking for a whole new look make sure you visit University College Birmingham who will be demonstrating special effects and theatrical make up with visitors arriving fresh faced and leaving looking like a zombie!

Loads of the companies will be there wanting you to get involved in their demonstrations and activities. Many of them are running competitions so you can have fun and try to win some great prizes.

Information, Advice and Guidance

Skills West Midlands fits really well with the latest IAG strategy, so make your time out of the classroom count:

Your students will get

• quality careers advice from industry experts in the region
• a feel for different courses and careers, through taster sessions and quality experiences
• access to online resources and specialist local help

As a teacher you will

• network with regional business and decision makers
• get ahead with IAG with additional resources from industry experts in the region
• a feel for different courses and careers on offer to your students  through taster sessions and quality experiences

What's on?

Loads of companies will be at the event event and want you to get involved with demonstrations and activities. Many will have competitions with great prizes.

Full details will be available nearer the event but in 2011 the activities included: 

Can you talk your way out of danger?
Communication skills are vital in any career and could save your life. The Army stand had a communication exercise where a blindfolded volunteer was talked through the danger zone and into safety. 

Get creative with your career
Stratford upon Avon college have a go area offered careers in photography and media, sniffing out a story for careers in the media and what skills were needed. Other activities included students and lecturers from the musical and technical theatre department performing and hospitality and catering roles sampling the tasty treats.

Green fingers
The team at Warwickshire College showcased careers in horticulture – from plant to plate, so it was onions and shallots or carrots and cabbage. Students found out how clean their hands were by testing them with the hygiene hand wash test and took blood pressure with student ambassadors from Warwickshire College’s Health, social & child care department.

Engineer your future
The Engineering Construction Industry Training Board stand had a variety of fun type activities with prizes and information about careers in massive construction projects including power stations, bridges and motorways.

Counting the ways to success
Accountancy training provider, Kaplan’s had an interactive apprenticeship quiz; winners won a £5 music voucher.

We are planning new and exciting activities all the time so keep up-to-date by coming back to the website before the event. We try hard to be accurate but some activities and exhibitors may change.

Who's There?

Click here to see the full list of 2011 exhibitors.

All activities and exhibitors are subject to change and some interactive features will vary and only be offered during specific sessions.

Who's There? | Book Yourself | Book Your Group