ESBJERG BUSINESS COMMUNITY GUARANTEES JOBS FOR NEW ENGINEERING GRADS

ESBJERG BUSINESS COMMUNITY GUARANTEES JOBS FOR NEW ENGINEERING GRADS

More students for Esbjerg and more access to a qualified labour force is the goal of a new agreement between Aalborg University (AAU) and Business Esbjerg. The business community has agreed to guarantee engineering graduates from AAU Esbjerg a job for a minimum of six months after the end of their education. The agreement is intended to help ensure growth in Southwest Jutland once it gets past the coronavirus crisis.

AAU Esbjerg produces approximately 100 new engineers each year. They are in demand and the vast majority of them quickly get jobs either in Esbjerg or in other parts of Denmark. But in order to strengthen the city and region's opportunities to attract students and retain qualified workers, AAU and Business Esbjerg have signed an agreement on increased cooperation. In practice, the agreement means that the business community provides a six-month job guarantee to graduates from AAU Esbjerg, and that the students and the business community are committed to an even closer collaboration during the students’ programme. The goal is for the agreement to support the work of securing the city's growth potential once the fog of the coronavirus crisis clears.
 

ENSURING BUSINESS COMMUNITY GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES

At Business Esbjerg, the agreement is seen as part of future-proofing business growth opportunities in Southwest Jutland.

- The job guarantee scheme with AAU Esbjerg shows that the business community in Southwest Jutland is willing to take the lead to secure more students for Esbjerg. On the other side of the coronavirus crisis, there will still be a need for skilled and highly qualified staff. Before the crisis, for a long time we had witnessed many companies refusing orders and missing out on growth opportunities. With this initiative, we want to help ensure that this doesn’t happen again once things really get going, says Susanne Nordenbæk, CEO of Business Esbjerg.

She believes that the collaboration between business and the university will ensure the future of the business community through access to talented and competent graduates.

- The job guarantee will hopefully attract more ambitious young people from Denmark and abroad who can see all the advantages in choosing the Esbjerg area. The fact that we can offer exciting, international career opportunities is not visible enough to young people in Hillerød or Hamburg, but we expect this collaboration to help change that, she elaborates.
 

RETURN ON INVESTMENT FOR BUSINESS

In addition to the job guarantee, the new agreement also requires the students at AAU Esbjerg and the municipality's business community to work closely together during the students’ studies. This approach is very familiar to students at AAU who are accustomed to working with external partners through the problem-based approach to learning (the PBL model).

AAU was voted Europe's best engineering university in terms of both research and education, and one of our most notable features is our ability to collaborate with the world around us. That is why I am convinced that the agreement will be a societal "return on investment" where companies are obligated to accept graduates in return for increasing their chances of retaining qualified labour in the long term, says Inger Askehave, Pro-rector at Aalborg University.
 

ONE OF SEVERAL INITIATIVES FOR AN ATTRACTIVE PLACE TO STUDY

From a political point of view, the job guarantee agreement is also generating enthusiasm. Mayor Jesper Frost Rasmussen is delighted that AAU and Business Esbjerg have taken a step that will make it even more attractive to study and become established in Esbjerg.

- Esbjerg has struggled to recruit qualified labour for several years. Companies offer attractive and exciting jobs, interesting career paths and an international perspective. The business community is particularly challenged when it comes to engineering competences, one of the explanations being that too few engineers are trained in Esbjerg. So I welcome the job guarantee initiative. I believe that future engineering students will see the job guarantee as a good way to facilitate the transition from student life to an exciting work life, says Jesper Frost Rasmussen.

He emphasizes that there is already extensive cooperation between the business community and the educational institutions in Esbjerg, and that the job guarantee is another good example of the business community, educational institutions and the city of Esbjerg wanting young people.


FACTS ABOUT THE JOB GUARANTEE AGREEMENT

The job guarantee requires that the student complete their education within the prescribed period of study.
The job guarantee requires that the graduate has written a project or done an internship with a company (at least 15 ECTS credits). 
The job guarantee requires Danish proficiency equivalent to level B1 on the CEFR scale.
Read more about the conditions for the job guarantee scheme here.


AAU – AN INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED UNIVERSITY

AAU was voted Europe's best engineering university and number four in the world (U.S. News and World Report, 2020)
AAU offers Europe's best and the world's fourth best engineering programmes (MIT report: “The global state of the art in engineering education, 2018”)
AAU's approach to and research on education is ranked as the world's best (Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, 2020)
AAU is ranked as the 10th best university in the world in sustainable energy (Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, 2020)