Over 3,000 Indigenous job seekers and school leavers from Cairns and surrounding areas were draw to the 2011 Cairns FOGS Indigenous Employment and Careers Expo on Wednesday March 23.

The expo was FOGS’ largest regional expo to date, with over 60 exhibitors from a full range of industries offering employment and training opportunities on the day.

Just some of the prominent exhibitors at the event included Accor Hotels, Australia Post, CRS Australia, Defence Force Recruiting, Energex, Qantas, QR National, Virgin Blue, Woolworths, Thiess, James Cook University, Griffith University, Queensland Apprenticeship Services and TAFE Queensland.

Worldskills Try a Trade displays also gave the Cairns Indigenous community hands-on work experience in the automotive, barrister, beauty, cookery and hospitality, hair dressing and nursing industries.

In addition, Cairns’ Indigenous community were offered encouragement at the expo from a team of current and former Origin Greats, including Brent Tate and Steve Price.

FOGS executive chairman Gene Miles said he was confident Cairns’ Indigenous job seekers and school leavers benefitted from attending the expo.

“It was very rewarding to see Indigenous job seekers speaking one-on-one with employers and see them walk away from the conversations with an application in hand and a reassured smile,” he said.