Get a taste of dream jobs and great companies

A professional "taster week" awaits interested pupils from Jena and the surrounding area during the Easter vacations. In the third edition of the "Internship Week Jena", young people aged 15 and over can get to know eight companies on up to eight vacation days and discover a wide range of job profiles. Anyone who wants to take part can register free of charge via the website www.praktikumswoche-jena.de(link is external). Pupils are asked online about their interests and talents and then automatically assigned to the participating companies. Around 90 local and regional companies are currently registered and 20 one-day internships have already been arranged. Until the vacations, companies can still add "last minute" offers and participate flexibly for between one and eight days.

"Young people can take a look at a variety of fields of work during the Easter vacations and, for example, get to know a potential training company on a day-to-day basis," says project manager Daniela Drilltzsch from the Jena Economic Development Agency (JenaWirtschaft).

According to Drilltzsch, 120 young people took part last year and completed a total of 245 internship days.
In addition to JenaWirtschaft, the Jena/Saale-Holzland district craftsmen's association and the industry network OptoNet e.V. are also among the organizers of the format. According to Manuela Vogt from the "Passgenaue Besetzung" project of the district craftsmen's association, the one-day internships are the perfect way to see that "you don't necessarily need a high school diploma or university degree for your own professional self-realization." The young people can experience for themselves - without the need for a job interview - how wide-ranging the opportunities in the skilled trades are and how proud they can be to create something with their own hands every day, says Vogt. More than 10 craft offers are currently registered for the Easter vacations.

Natalja Bajkovski from the OptoNet industry network knows that practical experimentation is also the proverbial "be-all and end-all" in training professions in the optics and photonics industry. "

What do precision opticians, physics laboratory technicians and microtechnologists actually do all day? The best way to find out is to do an internship. The photonics companies in Jena are looking forward to welcoming the students and will show them what future topics are being researched and worked on." Numerous exciting opportunities await the potential trainees of tomorrow during the internship week, including at the companies asphericon, GRINTECH, JENOPTIK and INNOVENT Technologieentwicklung.

It's definitely worth taking part, according to those who took part last year: 100 percent of the students surveyed said they would recommend the internship week to others.

Comments on the 2023 internship week:

Dr. Thomas Nitzsche, Lord Mayor of Jena:
"Spending internship days in companies and getting a taste of practical experience away from the school routine is a wonderful format from which both the pupils and the 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 training contracts as possible will be established as a result."

Thomas Jüttner, head of the Jena/Saale-Holzland district trades association:
"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. It is therefore important and right to pass on knowledge across generations. Trying out skilled trades in particular helps young people to decide in favor of training in the skilled trades. That's why we are delighted to be taking part in the 2023 internship week. A great format to introduce young people to the skilled trades."

Nora Kirsten, Managing Director of the photonics network OptoNet e.V.:
"The many photonics companies in Jena and the surrounding area offer great opportunities for the future - many people don't even know that. That's why we think it's exciting for students to get to know professions and companies during the internship week that they may not have had on their radar before. We invite everyone to take a look behind the scenes, meet people, try things out and gather ideas."