The FormaOcupa trade show closes the best edition in history

It attracted around 8,000 visitors from Lleida, Barcelona, Huesca and Tarragona

The expansion of the trade show, the increase in activities and the strong involvement of institutions and companies, key to the success of the 19th edition of the trade fair

The FormaOcupa trade show closed its doors today Saturday with highly positive results in terms of public attendance and contacts registered between participating companies with job offers and people interested in finding work. The 19th edition of the Lleida Training and Employment Trade Show attracted around 8,000 visitors – mostly young people – from the city and the province of Lleida, but also from Barcelona, Huesca and Tarragona. On the other hand, the 50 companies present at the trade fair with concrete job offers conducted nearly 900 interviews and job contacts with visitors interested in finding work over the 3 days of the trade show. According to the trade fair organization, the expansion of the trade fair, the increase in activities and the strong involvement of institutions, business entities and companies in the region have contributed to the excellent results of the trade fair.

In this regard, one of this year's innovations, the Speed Job Dating, the Friday morning session of rapid job interviews, registered 284 contacts, in which interested parties received personalized attention to learn about the 120 concrete job offers presented by the 50 participating companies. In addition to scheduled interviews, the aforementioned companies made over 600 spontaneous job contacts with trade show visitors.

Today Saturday was designed as a specialized day for guidance and professional future, with academic and employment guidance tables, as well as self-employment and entrepreneurship advisory services, and the main audience was a mix of young people, families and adults.

The territorial coordinator of vocational training at the Department of Education and Vocational Training, Olga Castilla, explained that the guidance talks on vocational education taught at the trade show attracted around 150 young people from 11 districts in Lleida province, and that individualized attention was provided to around 90 young people on training options, languages and new opportunities programmes. The department's work, which had 11 academic and employment guidance points, focused on guidance for families and individuals on professional career paths.

Marina Guivernau, programmes manager at IMO, in addition to highlighting the success of public attendance, higher than in the previous edition, explained that the centre registered high demand for information, both for qualified profiles such as administration assistant, and for unqualified profiles such as warehouse and cleaning assistant; and, more generically, summer jobs. She also highlighted the smooth running of Speed Job Dating and today Saturday's event, focused on family guidance sessions. The Institute made a total of 110 job offers available to interested people and received a considerable volume of in-person inquiries, website and app consultations.

It should be noted that the Diputació de Lleida, through the Economic Promotion Board and in collaboration with district councils, arranged free transport to the trade show for more than 2,000 students from the districts of Lleida, Pyrenees and Aran.

This edition of FormaOcupa, held from 26 to 28 February, featured 80 companies and organizations related to training and employment and around 150 activities, including talks, workshops, demonstrations and other initiatives. The leading trade show in the fields of training and employment, offered job opportunities with companies from various sectors that interviewed candidates and sought professional profiles and also focused on promoting entrepreneurship, with information and advice for setting up own projects; on occupational training and professional certificates, aimed at unemployed people and workers, and on continuous training for active workers, aimed at expanding skills and improving business competitiveness.

The trade show is organized by the Municipal Employment Institute, the Ajuntament de Lleida, the Employment Department of the Generalitat de Catalunya and Fira de Lleida, and has the collaboration of the Lleida Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Promotion Board of the Diputació de Lleida, CCOO, COELL, PIMEC, the Employment Service of Catalonia (SOC), UGT and the University of Lleida.