Dundalk Institute of Technology has hosted its largest careers fair to date, with nearly 80 employers meeting students and graduates, giving HR and talent acquisition teams a face-to-face route to graduate programmes, work placements and internships.

Dundalk Institute of Technology is a higher education institute in Dundalk, County Louth, whose Careers & Employability Centre organised the fair, with students from more than 45 undergraduate programmes across business, humanities, hospitality, health, science, engineering, computing and creative arts.

Kingspan has a long-held partnership with DkIT and sponsored the Professional Headshot Photobooth at the 2026 fair.

The strategic logic is employer proximity to talent. The fair gives employers access to current students, recent graduates, research-active Masters and PhD students and academic teams, alongside a Regional Development Centre supporting start-ups, entrepreneurs and applied research.

Anthony Murray, head of careers and employability at DkIT, said: “It was fantastic to see such a strong turnout from employers across so many sectors, demonstrating the wealth of opportunities available to our students and graduates, both within the region and further afield.”

The structural driver is steady growth in employer participation: the 2022 fair hosted over 60 employers, while the 2023 and 2024 fairs each welcomed more than 70, before this year’s event reached nearly 80.

Murray also thanked the organisations that took the time to engage with students, adding that the institute is incredibly grateful to all of them.

Employers attending included WuXi Biologics, and the opportunities spanned a wide range of sectors both internationally and within Ireland.

DkIT’s 2024 careers fair report stated that more than 85% of its graduates are employed within the region.

Dole Ireland, a 2023 sponsor, said the fair attracts over 1,000 students and more than 70 employers, and sent representatives from finance, HR, marketing and technical teams that year.

The fair took place on Wednesday 7 October, from 9am to 1pm, in the MPC in the Faulkner Building on the DkIT campus.

For the sector, the fair shows employers using campus events to build graduate pipelines early, with participation growing year on year.

Source: Louth Live / DkIT