UK Recruitment Drive to Boost Region Fast

Sept. 29, 2011 - PRLog -- Manchester-based hosting company UKFast today announced it is creating 100 jobs in the region over the next 18 months.

The recruitment drive comes in the wake of figures that show unemployment continuing to rise in the region.

Unemployment in the North West grew by more than 35,000 in the three months to June, marking the biggest rise in unemployment of any region in the country.

Lawrence Jones, who set up his first business on the Enterprise Allowance Scheme at the age of 17 (receiving a £40 per week contribution from the government), expressed his concern over the lack of entrepreneurial support in the region.

"Thatcher got a lot of stick from various sides over the years, but she created an environment that gave people confidence and you need confidence when you are about to embark on a journey into the unknown," said Jones.

"When the news of the last recession hit, we did our best to stick to our original plan as best we could, focussing on finding like-minded businesses who were equally as determined to buck the trend."

Jobs are being created across the business, with a particular focus on client-facing roles. Jones is also keen to recruit young people who can benefit from UKFast's training initiatives.

"The internet is allowing us to automate a great deal of what we do which, in turn, creates roles for new members managing the growing businesses on our network.

"It disappoints me to know that our jobless figures are amongst the worst in the country and the youth unemployment stats are particularly worrying. We're big advocates of apprenticeship-style training - developing people's passion for an industry by giving them the hands-on experience they crave. Getting young people excited about careers in technology is the answer to a lot of the problems in society."

UKFast's product range has grown in response to developing market areas including cloud computing. MyCloudStack, a cloud computing solution, has been instrumental in the growth of the company, building cloud environments for businesses to help take advantage of the flexibility and scalability of cloud computing.

"Exactly four years ago today we had 26 staff. We'd just moved into City Tower. It was cavernous; it's now bursting at the seams with more than 130 staff," said Jones.

The businessman, who won the IOD's Manchester Young Director of the Year in 2007, classes the UKFast team as members of his extended family.

He continued: "At UKFast we recruit people that we know will thrive in our particular environment. Skills can be taught but attitude is ingrained; every member of our team is passionate, dynamic and supportive of one another. The team at UKFast continues to be the key to our success. It’s an honour to be at the helm of such a great bunch."

For more information about UKFast visit http://www.ukfast.co.uk

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UKFast is one of Europe’s fastest-growing technical companies (as ranked by Deloitte) and has been at the heart of the UK internet industry for more than 10 years. In addition to being named as one of The Sunday Times best companies to work for, it won the UK IT Awards Employer of the Year in 2010.