Vacancies for internships and graduation assignments are available on the company stands when the first groups of students enter the ICD tent. There is no question of dawdling at the entrance because it is cold outside. They come from the annual event Engineering the future of the Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Building, the center for earthquake-resistant construction on the Zernike Campus in Groningen. With a conversation immediately upon arrival and a flyer, the students are made aware of our presence in a separate tent 50 meters away. Successfully.
,’’Write your name down and you will definitely hear from us,'' said Sietske Dijkstra of FMI against two students. She is a metrology engineer and with her colleague looking for enthusiastic students. ‘’The assignments we have are ideas for directions and possibilities. Say, to give students a sense of what they could do with us. When someone reports to us, we engage in conversation and look for a suitable assignment. And students with whom we immediately feel a ’click,’ we definitely make a follow-up appointment.'' The list of names and e-mail addresses on the table next to the glass containers of colored peanuts grows steadily.
Orientation
Many students do not know exactly what they are looking for and are therefore open to all kinds of things. That helps, because most don't really know our companies yet. One person is familiar with it. Like Max and Bart, both second-year mechatronics students at Hanze University of Applied Sciences. ,,I know WhisperPower from Drachten, I did an internship there for my MBO education,’’ Bart says. ’’But I didn't know that there are so many more interesting companies at the ICD.’’ Both are surprised to find another tent with only high-tech companies next to the large hall. Max: ,,I am in the right place here, because I would like to do something with industrial automation.’’ They are not going home with an internship yet. Bart is mainly orienting himself. He is getting acquainted and collecting business cards of interesting companies. I don't have to do an internship until next year, but by then I will know which companies are in the market for this.’
Widely applicable
Peter Tamminga, product engineer at BD, while talking to students, pays attention to one thing in particular. ’’I prefer students who want to engage in all kinds of things company-wide. Focusing can always be done while they are working with us. I also want them to be noticed by the rest of our company.’’ Colleague Frans Freijen, involved in the ICD project cobots 2.0, knows that it always works well with students from the Hanzehogeschool. ''They learn from us and they do projects for which we hardly have time, but which are important.''
Choices
Sytze, an engineering business administration student, is doing a minor in renewed energy. ,,I know the ICD from an ‘in-house day’ at Stork. I want to learn more about renewable energy before choosing an internship. I look out for great initiatives that have sustainability high on their agenda. Maybe I'll find that here today.’’ Ruben, a sophomore in mechatronics, is particularly interested in industrial automation and has his eye on Neopost. Nynke, sophomore electrical engineering major, is surprised by the offer. ’’So many different companies! The medical sector attracts me, I would like to develop medical equipment.'' Abe, third-year electrical engineering is looking for a graduation project. ''I don't have a specific dream, but my preference is both embedded software and hardware development. I would prefer to design a new product and align its hardware and software. BD could be a place for me and at Ziuz and Variass I'll stop by later, too.’’
Assignment
,’’Students hit on the text on our exhibition wall, but have no idea what technology we work with. That doesn't matter, we love to explain that,’’ Melvin Akker says amused. He is a project engineer at Photonis and notes that his company could still use some name recognition among students. Still, at some point they line up with him. ,,We don't have many assignments at the moment, but this is good for our name recognition. And before you know it, there's a student walking among us who you think: I'll just make up an assignment for him, as long as he comes to us!''
