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The Career Fair paves the way for collaboration between SMEs in North Jutland and AAU students

Lagt online: 22.03.2024

At Aalborg University's annual Career Fair in Gigantium, there was a special focus this year on getting students into student jobs, project-oriented courses, and project collaboration in the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in North Jutland. AAU invited the business consultants from the municipalities of North Jutland to talk about the exciting companies in their municipalities.

Text: Lykke Kragh Ellefsen, AAU Career
Photos: Lykke Kragh Ellefsen, AAU Career, and Laura Cecilie Slots, Manova

Gigantium was buzzing with good atmosphere and conversations between students and companies when the Career Fair took place on 19 March.

Tinna Holmager Olsen and Line Uggerly Jørgensen were among the smiling faces at the fair this year. They are business consultants in Hjørring Municipality, which was among the 8 municipalities that participated in the new joint stand area "Collaboration in North Jutland".

They explain that Hjørring Municipality has many small and medium-sized companies, which may be challenged by the fact that they are located further away from Aalborg and do not have the opportunity to spend a whole day at a fair. Here, the Career Fair gives business consultants the chance to be the link between companies and students.

The Career Fair provides an opportunity for more companies to be noticed, and we can break down the barriers and tell the students about all the cool companies.

Tinna Holmager Olsen, business consultant, Business Hjørring

Open students who are more than a title

The business consultants had brought many advertisements to the fair – both student jobs, project collaborations, and project-oriented courses in the municipality's companies – and they had many good talks with different students during the day.

"We help the students become more concrete about how they can sell themselves so that they are not just their educational title. We try to put it in relation to the companies' challenges, so that the students discover how they can play a part in it," says Line Uggerly Jørgensen. "Our experience is that the students need to be challenged, which they welcome, and that helps us find companies that suit them."

Distance is not as big a barrier as it used to be

The business consultants went home happy and tired after meeting many interested students at the Career Fair.

"The students seem very open to Hjørring Municipality," says Tinna Holmager Olsen. "It's not that far away and they're very portable. There has been a development in that area, and the distance is not quite as big a barrier as it used to be."

"The new 'Collaboration in North Jutland' area at the fair worked well, and there was a good synergy between the business offices, where we could refer to each other. It does not really matter whether it is one municipality or another that the students get jobs in. The goal is to get them into SMEs, for example in a student job, and maybe they will stick around and stay there – or else they may have opened up to getting other academics into the company," says Tinna Holmager Olsen.

It is important that students become aware of the outlying municipalities. We must ensure that they remain in North Jutland.

Line Uggerly Jørgensen, business consultant, Business Hjørring

About the Career Fair 19 March 2024

The Career Fair is one of the Denmark's largest and is held in close collaboration between AAU Career and Manova, which also holds the Career Days in the 3 other large university cities.

1,920 students and recent graduates and 55 companies and organisations participated in the Career Fair this year.

The new stand area "Collaboration in North Jutland" is facilitated through Vækst Via Viden ("Growth Via Knowledge"): A broad partnership between actors in the field of business promotion, education and employment, which aims to match North Jutland companies with students and highly educated labour. The partnership includes among others AAU, UCN, the Danish Chamber of Commerce, Business Hub Northern Denmark, and the Confederation of Danish Industry.