HUNDREDS of jobs are on offer today at day two of the Daily Echo/RIAS Future 2005 Recruitment Exhibition.

Employers from across the area are recruiting vital staff at the two-day exhibition which continues on September 8 at Bournemouth's Metro Palace Court Hotel.

Job-hunters from across the area are targeting Future 2005 as a shortcut to better careers.

Rapidly expanding specialist over-50s insurer RIAS needs to recruit around 12 staff a week - more than 600 per year - to meet growing demand at its Wessex Fields HQ.

RIAS senior recruitment co-ordinator Sally Lucas said: "We've just opened a new wing of the building at Wessex Fields, we have new teams being developed, new management positions."

And the new £17.5 million De Vere Village Hotel & Leisure Club being built virtually next door to RIAS has around 200 vacancies still to fill before it opens in December.

The Village will be only the second De Vere hotel and leisure complex of its kind in the South.

SOS Recruitment's Poole branch manager Paul Barter said of the exhibition: "It's very busy - really, really great. We had 50 people through in the first hour."

Bournemouth-based Platinum Recruitment's Anna Jones said: "We've had a steady stream of people - quite a few in IT, web designers, quite a few sales people."

Bournemouth & Poole College has also attracted IT workers: "It's not too late to enrol," said events co-ordinator Hannah Mobbs.

The College is holding a special late enrolment event today at its North Road, Poole campus, 1pm-8pm.

Other companies and organisations exhibiting at Future 2005 include Coutts, Right4staff; Armed Forces Careers; Care UK; Paragon & ITE Training Group, Bournemouth University and the Daily Echo.

The Daily Echo/RIAS Future 2005 Recruitment Exhibition continues today, 10am-4pm, at the Metro Palace Court Hotel in Westover Road, Bournemouth.

For full details on the exhibition, contact the Daily Echo recruitment team on 01202 291334.