By Christian Friis-Nielsen and Lykke Kragh Ellefsen, AAU Career
Photo: William Brændstrup

Career VIPs are officially those who are the standard-bearers for the employability effort in their respective study programmes. Both the role and the support for the role have developed significantly since the beginning in 2017.

Robert Thomsen, who is career VIP at Culture, Communication and Globalization, was one of the very first career VIPs and was also involved in developing the concept.

"In my view, as an educational institution, we have a responsibility to prepare our students as best as possible for the practical reality in which they will apply the knowledge, skills, and competencies we equip them with at the university," he says.

"It has been very positive and inspiring to see how both the employability concept and the entire mindset behind it are becoming an integrated part of our way of thinking about education."

Career Learning Should Be Integrated

Career learning is not something extra but rather something that can be integrated into the curriculum as a value-adding perspective, says Simone Riis Porsborg, career VIP at Medicine with Industrial Specialisation.Kasper Rodil, career VIP at Medialogy, agrees:

"I get a lot out of putting on the career VIP hat and inspecting my teaching. How does it relate to the present? Or I review the projects I am doing. How do the students get the most out of it in relation to relevance on their CV?"

"That journey of understanding one's own study programme – through the eyes of companies and recent graduates – is incredibly exciting. It's about seeing things from others' perspectives and trying to model the teaching so that it fits others, instead of only seeing it from one's own perspective, which one might otherwise risk doing."

A Task That Makes Sense

Robert Thomsen says that the career VIP work has made a difference, which in his study can be seen in the retention and employment figures, and Simone Riis Porsborg agrees, saying that she concretely experiences that more students start job search activities early in their studies.

"I find that students are much more focused on establishing a network during their time at the university and that they see greater value in non-academic competencies," says Simone Riis Porsborg.

"This initiative gives them perspective and peace of mind. Although the future is still uncertain and sometimes overwhelming, having a bit more insight into how it can be managed and that it is malleable gives them calm and greater confidence that they can overcome it."