News › Internship week · Call for participation
Pupils invited to internship week in summer
Vocational »taster weeks« await interested students from Jena and the surrounding area during the summer vacations. Young people aged 15 and over can get to know companies and discover a wide range of careers at the »Internship Week Jena«. Anyone who wants to take part can register free of charge via the website www.praktikumswoche-jena.de. The young people are asked online about their interests and talents and automatically assigned to the participating companies. Since the format began three years ago, nearly 140 local and regional companies have registered. Until the vacations, companies can still register or reactivate their online access and post »last minute« offers flexibly and free of charge.
»Young people can take a look at a variety of fields of work during the vacations and thus, for example, get to know a potential training company in everyday life,« says project manager Daniela Drilltzsch from the Jena Economic Development Agency (JenaWirtschaft), explaining the aim of the orientation weeks. Since the format began two years ago, Drilltzsch says a total of 391 young people have taken part and completed a total of 501 internship days.
»With the internship week, we support the transition of young people from school to the professional world,« said JenaWirtschaft Managing Director Wilfried Röpke. He added that this is one component in a catalog of measures derived from the »Jena 2030 Skilled Workforce Study« published in 2019. »Training is a very important topic for us as an economic development agency. We want to make sure that young people get the best possible overview of the companies with a strong future and great entry-level opportunities here in Jena.«
In addition to JenaWirtschaft, the Jena/ Saale-Holzland-Kreis district craftsmen’s association and the OptoNet e.V. industry network are also part of the organizing team. According to Manuela Vogt, managing director of the Kreishandwerkerschaft, the one-day internships are ideal for seeing that »you don’t necessarily need a high school diploma or a university degree for your own professional self-realization.« The young people can experience for themselves – without a cover letter, resume or job interview – »how wide-ranging the opportunities are in the skilled trades and how proud you can be to create something with your own hands every day.«
Practical experience is also the proverbial »be-all and end-all« in apprenticeships in the optics and photonics industry, says Natalja Bajkovski from the OptoNet industry network. »What do precision opticians, physics lab assistants and microtechnologists actually do all day? The best way to find out is an internship. Jena’s photonics companies are looking forward to welcoming the students and will show which future topics are being researched and worked on.« Numerous exciting offers await the potential trainees of tomorrow during the internship week.
Taking part is definitely worthwhile, according to those who took part last year: 93 percent of the students surveyed said they were better able to assess their own career path after the internship week. And around 89 percent of the participating companies said they could imagine at least one of the interns becoming an apprentice.
Voices on Internship Week 2023:
Dr. Thomas Nitzsche, Mayor of Jena:
»Spending internship days in companies and getting a taste of practical experience far away from the daily school routine is a wonderful format from which both students and companies in our region can benefit enormously. I am therefore delighted that the Jena Internship Week is entering its third round during the Easter vacations and hope that as many long-term contacts and also training contracts as possible will come about as a result.«
Manuela Vogt, Managing Director of Kreishandwerkerschaft Jena/ Saale-Holzland-Kreis:
»Training in the skilled trades is a matter of the heart and the key to maintaining the central infrastructure for Jena and the Saale-Holzland district. Therefore, it is important and right to pass on knowledge over generations. Trying out skilled trades in particular helps young people decide to train in the trades. That’s why we’re delighted to be involved in Internship Week 2023 as well. It’s a great format for bringing young people closer to the skilled trades.«
Nora Kirsten, Managing Director Photonics Network OptoNet e.V.:
»The many photonics companies in Jena and the surrounding area offer great future opportunities – many people don’t even know that. That’s why we think it’s exciting that students get to know professions and companies during the internship week that they might not have thought of before. We invite everyone to look behind the scenes, meet people, try things out and gather ideas.«