Summary: New Zealand businesses who attended the Opportunities New Zealand Expo over the weekend met with thousands of skilled Britons who were looking for information about migrating to New Zealand.

Thousands of Britons flocked to the Opportunities New Zealand Expo in London during the weekend, looking for information about living and working in New Zealand.

A number of New Zealand's top employers attended the expo, including ASB, Beca, MercyAscot, Navman and the University of Canterbury. “We’ve spoken to well over 100 people and collected in the region of 50 CVs," said Janet Lane from MercyAscot, who attended the expos for the first time this year. "The HR department [is going to] contact six people with the intention to hire immediately and we have more to process. It’s a great opportunity to meet people."

Canstaff, a recruiter from the Canterbury region who has attended the past five expos, had already spoken with more than 300 people and made one offer by Saturday afternoon. They have built up a database of over 13,000 people just from the expos, 123 of whom are due to arrive in New Zealand before Christmas.

Expo organisers Working In were also delighted with the turn out. “It’s great to see so many people at the expos who are committed to moving to New Zealand. On the whole, the level of education and experience has been very high,” said Kylie Barker, Working In's Marketing Manager.

Health roles featured prominently at the expo, which for the first time included a dedicated Health Pavilion to help attract healthcare professionals in all areas to fill the ever-growing gaps in this industry in New Zealand.

“There are huge shortages across the board. GPs and medical staff are short and this needs to be addressed,” said Dave Gilbert, Business Manager at Accident & Healthcare in the Bay of Plenty. “We are targeting GPs, but really anyone with medical skills. Three GPs were placed last week in Leeds and we have spoken to at least 100 people a day. We’ve gone a long way to achieving our goal of placing six candidates.”

Working In has been running the biannual expos in the UK since 2002, and launched their first expo in South Africa this year to meet the increasing demand from New Zealand employers for skilled international candidates. The pattern is only set to continue, with Immigration Minister Clayton Cosgrove stating earlier this year that "immigration is a vital ingredient in New Zealand's ongoing economic development. Migrants drive innovation, give our businesses international connections and provide a range of skills to transform our economic landscape."

Working In CEO Scott Mathieson completely agrees. “We have appreciable and growing gaps in our knowledge and skills in New Zealand, but our experience at Working In is that there is no shortage of skilled people wanting to come here and fill those gaps.”

The company is now looking ahead to their 2009 expos, which they expect will be equally well-attended, if not more so. "New Zealand continues to be a destination of choice for British migrants. Even in the current economic climate, people are still looking overseas for the lifestyle opportunities that Britain doesn't offer," said Mr Mathieson.

Alongside its expos, Working In also runs a website profiling more than 60 New Zealand employers and recruiters, and a number of regional government bodies. The website gives companies access to an ongoing pool of potential candidates, who can submit their CVs directly through the website.

Working In are global experts on connecting employers with skilled people moving country through international recruitment expos, magazines and the web. For more information about Working In, contact Kylie Barker on +64 9 302 0977, or email findoutmore@workingin.com