Bristol companies are being urged to offer jobs to skilled designers and engineers being made redundant from Dyson at a fair next month. Some 1,000 workers are at risk of losing their roles at the household appliances giant, which announced plans this week to cut more than a quarter of its UK workforce.
In response to the news, a jobs fair for those at risk of redundancy is being organised at Bristol Beacon in August – and companies in the city are being invited to get involved. Recruiter Brad Harper, founder of Design Truth, is behind the event on August 5.
He is hoping to bring together some of Bristol’s top employers with highly-skilled workers who now need to find alternative employment.
READ MORE: 1,000 Dyson jobs at risk
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“I wanted to do something to actually help by bringing people together and galvanising them,” he told Bristol Live. Mr Harper said he is looking for employers who have jobs available and are hiring, rather than just wanting to promote their companies. “This is about supporting local people with local jobs. We need employers with jobs that are signed off and good to go. They need to be in a position to hire directly.”
Businesses at the jobs fair will speak about what they do to those attending. There will also be ex-Dyson staff who have gone on to run their own companies or had successful careers elsewhere speaking about how they achieved success, Mr Harper said.
“It’ll give people the chance to find out how others have done it,” he explained. “It would have been easy to sit back but I wanted to do something more, which is why I am organising this event.”
Earlier this week, metro mayor Dan Norris – the new MP for North East Somerset and Hanham – called on Dyson to provide a “cast-iron guarantee” over a planned tech centre in Bristol. Sir James Dyson’s firm said last year that it would open a new tech hub in a redeveloped building near Bristol Bridge, overlooking Castle Park. The Bristol centre was expected to employ hundreds of extra AI and software engineers as well as the global tech firm’s commercial and e-commerce teams for Great Britain and Ireland.
Tickets to the Dyson jobs fair in Bristol, which will take place between 1pm and 6pm, will be released on July 22 via Eventbrite. Any businesses wanting to get involved should contact designtruth.co.uk.