We attended the EXPO in London on saturday not expecting much after the feedback on this forum from the Leeds EXPO the week before. It pretty much lived up to the Leeds info. There was one person in the interview room at one stage - Ontario I think.

First we went into the Alberta talk. This was done by the minister for Alberta and his team. They pretty much went through the slides pretty quick. I did have the impression that they are and will be crying out for people in the Oil and Gas Industry - but there was nobody there from any companies.

I then talked to a nice polite Canadian official. I mentioned the position regarding the jobs in Oil/Gas. I told her that although the talk went through the PNP and how it helps employers get people - it doesn't go far enough. She was lost for words and didn't know how to answer a lot of my questions. There was a lot of pushing and shoving there, couldn't believe how many people were dressed up in suits leaving after 20 mins disappointed.

Employers in Oil and Gas Operations only offer full time jobs, and this means that they can only offer them to the Resident population, meaning you need to be a resident first before you would get a job offer. The fact that an Operator learns the plany which can take up to 12 months depending on the complexity of it, means that if you are temp then there is no way that they are willing to even touch the PNP. The only hope for a breakthrough is either getting a Resident Visa, the Industry starts to fall over because of labour shortage or the new rules mean that the certain occupations will be fast tracked through.

Had a good Friday night, although in one Irish Bar my jaw dropped when 2 glasses of wine cost me £11. I think that through this forum we can do a lot more and find out more than through the EXPO - unless you know the Oil companies are there. Hope some others were lucky. Isn't it amazing how many people want to leave the UK !!!!

JET

I have to agree with most of the points that you have covered. We went after the bad reviews more for an overall view of the process. Even as a relative newbie i was disappointed at the level of info available and the way it was presented.

As my wife is a nurse we attended both of the stalls, the agency said they would have no prob getting jobs as long as you signed a 10 month contract with them, i wonder how many who were happily filling out the forms realised this as the woman next to us didnt and when we asked she stopped filling it in.

The Calgary info was good if the queue was a little long and trying to entertain a 3 year old. Again i knew most of the info which i got from this site.

For £15 value for money was poor and the service we recieved from the event organisers was another example of reasons leaving the UK has become so important.

Mark

What was the London Expo like? Was just wondering as has'nt been much comment on it. Sandra

"What was the London Expo like? Was just wondering as has'nt been much comment on it?"

It was as good as the cup of coffee in the nearest coffee bar...this was all it was worth going for for us!

Worst of it was that they tried to promote the November one to us, like we are going to fall for the con twice

Karma to you all on this sunny morn...

Lorraine G

It would probably be a good idea for everyone disappointed with the expo to contact them and tell them, They said lots of companies pulled out last minute, wonder why ?

I have emailed my complaint this morning, i'll lay money I won't get a reply though...
Lorraine G

Like Lorraine I have also sent my complaint in. Regardless of if I gt a reply or not, if a lot of us do it then perhaps future ones will be a lot better ?

JET

I think that a lot of people would have been disappointed, but the expo was worthwhile for me. I'm in a somewhat different position to most, as I've already got my PR and will be moving to Calgary in August, so being able to speak to Calgary Economic Development was very useful to me. They gave me the names of 10 companies currently recruiting in my field in Calgary. If any of them end up employing me, the cost of entry will have been well worth it!

Travelled all the way from Germany for this, should have read the warnings from the Leeds Expo, but we had already made all the arrangements and would have lost money to cancel. A total let down, got a cuddly moose and teddy bear, lots of pens but no real information which i didn,t already know. My honest opinion is that it was all a scam. Some may have been lucky and i did give one CV out but i am not expecting any results. In all, £15 to get in, £6 parking fees (up to 2 hours, but only used an hour), ferry tickets, fuel and overnight accommadation made for a very expensive weekend. Will think twice before doing something like this again.

I wasn't impressed either.

Considering it was meant to be a jobs fair, there was not one Recruitment Agency there. Lots of promotion for Alberta, Come to live and work here - You'll love it! Yeah, all well and good if you tell us where these jobs were!

I was amazed to see that a Bus Company had managed to send someone over to look for bus drivers. Where was everyone else???

I took copies of my CV along and they remained firmly in my bag. There was a long queue for the "Working In" stand, but if anyone had done their homework they would have known not to bother queuing up for an hour.

I didn't even get a Moose as they had run out...

find below the email i sent i am not expecting a reply

Sir/Madam,

I am writing to complain about your current Expo. For my wife and I it cost £30 not including travelling costs, for what was a poor exhibit. Alberta took up over half of the exhibit with Ontario having just 2 stands, there was nothing from the rest of the country so saying it was a Canada Expo was stretching it a little.

Staff on the day said a number of stalls had withdrawn at the last minute, so I have to ask why? and if the had arrived how where you going to fit them in as there was little to no space. I also found your staff on the day to be unhelpful and i felt that as a family with 2 young children we were treated as an inconvienance by staff.

I think the facilities were poor and i dont think it is acceptable to change a baby on a toilet floor because of a lack of facilites or your staffs lack of knowledge.

I feel that this event was just a dip of my pocket and it would be better named the Alberta Expo in the future.

Yours Faithfully

Mark Davidson

After hearing all the bad press from the Leeds expo we decided to visit and judge for ourselves. We travelled up from Plymouth (roughly 4 hrs) and were not surprised at seeing a very small turnout. We did a quick recce, (10 minutes) it didn't take any longer than that to walk around the whole show, and then spoke to the people relevent to our position.

We were introduced to a company called Wardrop and representitives Andrew and Steve. After reading my partner Jodie's CV they were very happy and seamed to think there may be an opening with their company. This was very encouraging. We also spoke with a few other people who said more or less the same.

For myself, there wasn't alot there. I have no trade, however I have run my own business for the last 4 years in the motor trade. I was a little dissapointed but we're glad we made the trip and put it down to experience.

According to the Working In site lots of companies were meant to be attending the London Expo. I wonder why they all pulled out at the last minute. DP and I didn't go as his profession wasn't represented - I'm glad we didn't now as the London Expo sounds worse than the Leeds Expo.

Unless of course it was "mis representation" and they were never going to be there in the first place.

It seems odd that they would pull out at the last minute if they are so desperate to for workers. I'm sure it's not that cheap for them to attend.

md5037,
I went to the Leeds Expo with my wife (kids left with my mother in law). It took us 1.5hrs to get there. I went to the first stall (there was a middle aged Canadian chap with glasses on - stood on his own - construction firm PCL?electrics/mechanics?). I introduced myself, and told him that I was a multiskilled electrical/electronic maintenance engineer..........he didn't respond (a blank look almost, I think he was wishing he was back home in the land of beautiful scenery). I then asked if they dealt with only construction "Yes" he replied. "I don't think there is anyone here that covers your trade" (I'd only been there about 3 minutes - I wondered why there was no-one queueing to speak to this talkative, individual...... there were queues on other stands!). What a bargain ...... £12.50 (pre-booked) each for the ticket and already blown out of the water (no interest).

To be fair to Wardrop, David Rempel (Human Resources) was very good, showed interest, spoke for quite a while and took my resume and gave me a card (told me to contact him). This was the only stall with engineering prospects for me. They wanted bus-drivers urgently, however.
I don't think the Leeds (Opportunities Alberta) Expo was worth the £25.00 I spent however.

Shaun

Shaun