Destinations Expo welcomes over 1,000 West Berkshire students to Newbury College

Around 1,200 West Berkshire students visited the district’s largest interactive careers fair yesterday (Thursday).

Destinations Expo, run by the Education Business Partnership (EBP), welcomed schools from across the district for the third time at Newbury College.

More than 60 employers, universities and further education providers had stands in The Street, The Hub and Sports Hall with information to help GCSE, college and sixth form students decide what training or career to pursue next.

CEO for the EBP Kate Barrow and principal and chief executive of Newbury College Iain Wolloff welcomed the companies before the event got underway.

The schools which attended included the Castle School, Mary Hare, iCollege Independence, Kennet (including PDR), Little Heath, Brookfields, Trinity, Denefield, The Downs, St Bart’s, The Milehouse Therapeutic School, Park House and Theale Green.

Speaking after the event, project officer for the EBP Georgina Curtis-Read said: “It went fantastically well.

“We had lots of lovely students. Reading their feedback forms, they’ve said it was inspiring.

“One of the most popular stands today was the company creating road markings in the Sports Hall.

“Young people won’t always appreciate that is something they can make a career out of.

“They’ve got a better idea now of their future pathway, which is our mission, so we feel like we’ve achieved that.

“Let’s show young people that the world is their oyster and that there are so many different jobs they can make a career out of.”

And reflecting on what was new at this year’s event and what the charity wants to see more of next year, she added: “This year we were really pleased with the diversity.

“We had the Newbury Weekly News, which was lovely, and a performing arts college and the National Film and Television School [based in Buckinghamshire].

“We were missing the creative industries.

“We’ve always done very well with the STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) sector around here with Xtrac and AWE, but we were really missing the creative industries, so we saw more of that this year.

“We would always welcome more diversity.”

The new Independent Film Tax Credit, confirmed by the Chancellor and Culture Secretary as the 68th BFI London Film Festival began on October 9, will mean productions with a budget up to £15 million will be eligible for a relief of 53 per cent on qualifying expenditure for the first time.

Films with a budget of up to £23.5m are also eligible for the tax credit and the relief will be tapered.

The creative industries generate £125 billion a year. The UK film sector is already worth £1.36 billion and employs more than 195,000 people.

Yesterday’s careers fair also coincided with the Government’s Employment Rights Bill, which proposes to ban exploitative zero-hours contracts, end fire and rehire practices and offer workers protection from unfair dismissal.

But other items like the proposed ‘right to switch off’, which would have prevented employers from contacting staff outside working hours, are not included in the bill.

The commitment to create a ‘single status of worker’, which aimed to boost protection for self-employed workers, is also not in the bill.

Both items featured in Labour’s plan to ‘Make Work Pay’.

The new rights are still under discussion and are not due to come into force at least until autumn 2026.

The Destinations Expo will return on Thursday, October 9, 2025.

Please contact https://shorturl.at/Js44k to get involved in next year’s careers fair.

The EBP, based at Shaw House, has brought businesses, schools and colleges together in and around Berkshire, Wiltshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire through organising careers fairs, workshops and work experience placements for more than 30 years.