Information for teachers
Dear teachers,

The range of professions today is vast and your students are spoiled for choice. KarriereStart offers a wide range of interview and application opportunities for career orientation. To ensure that your students can make the most of what the fair has to offer, we would like to ask you to get them in the right mood for KarriereStart - because only careful preparation for the event at school and at home will ensure a successful visit to the fair.
Below we have put together some tips on how to prepare for KarriereStart:
What basic tips can we give you for preparing your visit to the trade fair?
- Familiarize yourself with the trade fair! Take a look around our homepage and get an initial overview of the exhibitors and program.
- Use the various offers on job profiles, study opportunities, internships, arranging appointments, etc. in the visitor online service as well as the list of exhibitors and the program for an initial preselection - which exhibitors and/or presentations would you like to visit with your students?
- Plan enough time for your visit to the fair.
How can you give your students initial support?
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Talk to your students at an early stage and without any immediate pressure to make a decision and find out together:
- What interests do your students have?
- Do their leisure interests coincide with their career aspirations?
- What skills do they already have or need to develop?
- Have they already gained initial experience in the desired profession through internships or similar?
- Have the young people already tried out various internships or taster days?
- What prerequisites and requirements do the young people have to fulfill, what academic achievements will be necessary?
- Does your students' self-assessment of their own abilities match their school performance and assessments?
- What achievements and skills do your students need in order to achieve their career aspiration(s)?
- Do they have a specific career aspiration or vague ideas about their professional career?
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Take a look at which school-leaving qualification your students can/would like to aim for and which apprenticeship or course of study will be possible.
What should I bear in mind when talking to people at the stand?
- It is not uncommon for students to have reservations when talking to people at the trade fair stand and often only take information material with them without seeking direct contact with the contact person. Unfortunately, in many cases, little information is gained. It therefore makes sense to practise talking to people at the stand before visiting the event.
- A list of questions developed in collaboration with the students can also help with this. They can make a note of questions that interest your students in advance of their visit to the trade fair and ask the exhibitors in person.
- Encourage your students to ask questions and try things out at various exhibitors - trainees and trainers will be happy to answer questions from interested young people. The trade fair makes it possible for young people to "get a taste" of the different areas and sectors during a visit.
- Make it clear to your students that the motto "First impressions count" also applies at the fair. If you want to make a good impression on future bosses, you should pay attention to your clothing and take these tips to heart: be polite and friendly, listen attentively and take notes. Very important: take a break from your cell phone during the interview....
What documents should your students bring with them to CareerStart?
- Your students will have the opportunity to take a close look at their application documents on site and receive valuable advice. We ask you to inform your students about this and to promote the use of this service. For this purpose, the documents must of course be prepared in advance and brought along
- In addition to application portfolio checks, KarriereStart also offers direct applicant training - motivate young people to take advantage of this offer too - it gives them the chance to find out more about their achievements, applications and career options.
What impressions can your students take home with them after visiting the trade fair?
- You gain an (initial) overview of training and study opportunities.
- Familiarize yourself with the variety of educational and professional opportunities - talk to your students about them.
- Then, together with your students, compare wishes and reality - what opportunities exist on the training, study and job market, for example - so that you can support your students at an early stage to prevent them from dropping out of training or studies.
Where can your students find out about offers from individual exhibitors in advance of the trade fair?
- KarriereStart has an online visitor service that you can refer your students to. The "Visitors" section of our website www.messe-karrierestart.de contains specific exhibitor offers for internships, training, studies, further education and jobs as well as the opportunity to arrange appointments at the fair.
What role do parents play in preparing for the fair?
- When it comes to school and career guidance, parents are overwhelmingly the first point of contact for their pupils. Their opinion shapes and influences the young people. It is therefore particularly important to inform parents about the visit to KarriereStart at an early stage so that they too can find out in advance and think about how to prepare for the fair together with your students.
- In this context, please also refer to the information for parents on our website.