MEaP’s employability opportunities, Ingeus Spring Fair 2026 (EIA)

About Ingeus Spring Fair 2026

Periodically, Ingeus, one of MEaP’s working partners organises a fair to enable their participants to meet organisations able to offer them training, work placement opportunities, guidance and anything else that can facilitate their employability. Ingeus Spring Fair 2026 took place  at Ingeus Manchester Headquarters, at St Ann’s Square…

MEaP was able to attend this fair thanks as part of the Evidence in Action programme funded by Youth Futures Foundation.

Meeting new job seekers at Ingeus Spring Fair 2026

One of the perks of Ingeus Spring Fair is the opportunity to meet with new jobseekers, and encounter new circumstances that challenge MEaP’s employability and training infrastructure to continually adapt to the needs of the changing participants population.

At the 2026 fair, we were able to meet with dozens of individuals and ended altogether with 37 people expression of interest. It was quite invigorating to find out that not just our partners’ but our own marketing yielded some of the visits. 57% of the participants came from Ingeus, 4% from the Jobcentre, 4% from other organisations and 36% from our own reach work!

Expression of interest in MEaP training courses:

The interest in MEaP training courses were also quite satisfactory:

We were happy to see that our new TECHWELL PRE-ESOL & ESOL, specifically created to offer Employability Support to non-native speakers with a low level of English (below ESOL level 1) as identified by Ingeus and MEaP, validated its creation with over half of the expressions of interest (54%)

The following training programme of interest was our original TECHWELL Digital and Employability Bootcamp still showing relevance and being in high demand with 36% of expression of interest.

Our new Digital and Creative training programme offering Youth Tech Pathways for creative industry is finding its feet with a respectable 11% of the expressions of interest.

Reconnecting with partners and previous participants

Another great perk of the spring fair, which happened this time too, is the opportunity to reconnect face-to-face with our participants for updates and just a quick hello. Although we keep digital contact after their progression, it is often difficult to get to see them when they are engaged in training, employment, internship, or setting up a new venture.

It was really good to meet the work-dedicated Doreen and the ever business-ready Edna rom the TECHWELL Digital and Employability Bootcamp programme, who completed their training just some weeks earlier and have been taking temporary roles while assiduously applying for permanent roles, making sure there are no gaps in their work experience.

Next steps

We planned to contact everyone on the expression of interest list to confirm eligibility and interest and most have already been reached and have responded positively. Participants who meet the required criteria are being invited to formally register and enrol onto their next courses and dates will be confirmed. Participants aged 24+ will remain on our waiting list with provision updates provided after April.

We are extremely grateful to our partner Ingeus for inviting us to their Ingeus Spring Fair 2026. The fair is another way we solidify our relationship and collaboration to maximise outcomes for Greater Manchester job seekers. We are proud to be offering FREE targeted employability programmes to help Greater Manchester residents find work, peace and fulfilment.

To that goal, we are organising our own recurring Manchester Career Day on the 28 May 2026 from 10:00am to 3:00pm at the Millennium Powerhouse in Moss Side, Manchester. Our career day is specofically aimed at for 16–24 year olds which also suit this year’s government and funding focus, based on relevant data. We are expecting up to 33 exhibitors, including employers and community services.