The Rodgau Education Fair is one of the most important local exhibitions for us. Lots of incredibly varied exhibitors are in attendance, and the visiting public is just as diverse – if not more so.
Is the education fair just for school pupils? Absolutely not!
Of course, this is what always first springs to mind when education fairs are mentioned. It’s true that there are pupils in attendance who are just about to finish school and want to inform themselves about their future career options. This is an important topic for these pupils and their parents, of course. Most visitors are already aware of “well-known” jobs such as police officer, hairdresser, architect… but what else is out there?
It’s difficult to take so many different professional and academic options into account. An education fair can at least be the first step for students in discovering what’s on offer in the local region. 130 exhibitors were in attendance at the Rodgau Education Fair alone. One undeniable bonus here is that there is direct contact with HR staff and – to some extent – with current trainees. Trainees, or even employees who have also successfully completed degree courses or apprenticeships themselves, are present at many of the exhibition stands.
However, as mentioned above, it’s not just school leavers and their parents that you come across at events like this. Young and old alike can be found attending these fairs. The very youngest visitors naturally wander around in search of the best freebies. Anything that flashes or sparkles is a prime target. Many job-seeking adults ask at the exhibition stands whether there are current vacancies. There are also many older people at the fairs. These visitors are usually familiar with the companies from the local region. Either because they’ve worked for these companies themselves or because they know someone who has.
This always results in interesting conversations: sometimes there’s a bit of back and forth about which people are still employed by the company and who has moved on to pastures new. Finally, you can also make arrangements to exchange contact details with a number of organisations. Very often, these aim to give careers advice to young people.
Exchanging experiences with other companies
Alongside the hustle and bustle of the exhibition, there are occasionally moments when things calm down for a bit. That’s when you have time to chat to people working at the other exhibitors’ stands. This year was another opportunity to have a pleasant discussion about recruiting trainees and university students. It was intriguing to learn that our ranges of apprenticeships and study courses were almost identical. We also found that we’d encountered the same distribution and quality of applications.
In addition, an exhibition like this is always a convenient opportunity to chat to our partners, such as the Rhein-Main University of Cooperative Education. These discussions are always very cordial and honest – we are also very supportive of one another furthermore. We handed out flyers for the university’s “Doors Open Day” on 11th March 2017 and in informed visitors to our stand about the event.
… to be continued on 11th March 2017
Consequently, attending the education fair was definitely worth it. We’ll have to wait and see how many applications we actually receive. Even just making our presence felt is important, though. A high proportion of visitors weren’t looking for information about apprenticeships or studies starting this year just yet.
The next appearance for our exhibition stand will be at the Rhein-Main University’s Doors Open Day on 11th March 2017. Therefore we hope that this event will provide us with just as many interesting and enjoyable conversations!
