DESTINATION Basingstoke attended a graduate recruitment fair at Oxford Brookes University last week.

The aim was to encourage students to consider working for one of the many prestigious companies operating in the Basingstoke area and to highlight the other advantages of living in the area.

Felicity Edwards managing director of Destination Basingstoke said the fair was very successful with 100 per cent of all the students met saying they would be happy to move to the town, expressing an interest in working for 50 different local companies.

The initiative is a new project for Destination Basingstoke, the not-for-profit company that works to promote the town through a variety of projects and is a unique and ground breaking approach to marketing the town and its assets.

Felicity said: “Having talked to a number of businesses it seems that some are finding it difficult to recruit quality graduates, so we want to help them get access to the cream of the crop of the 2014 graduates.

“At the same time we got a fantastic opportunity to tell talented young people about the opportunities and great quality of life they can expect if they live and work in Basingstoke.

“We think this is a unique initiative of bringing together a range of employers in all different sectors, promoting them and making it an easy decision for graduates when they are looking at where they want to launch their career.

“Basingstoke has so many quality employers – and we want to be able to represent them as we visit other universities over the coming months.”

Destination Basingstoke will be attending careers fairs across the region over the next few months, including those at Surrey, Bournemouth and Portsmouth Universities.

Businesses can be represented at the fairs through a range of branding opportunities as well as gaining specific contact details of qualified graduates.

“We’d like to hear from all businesses that would like to get their name out to new graduates from across the country, and help us with this unique trail blazing idea of representing a whole town, not just single employers,” said Felicity.