The spring-summer internship period is about to begin, and many students are already looking for a suitable internship. Today, a big Job Shadowing Day is taking place in Ülemiste City, which is also being attended for the first time by students studying to be nurses and optometrists at Tallinn Health Care College.

The latest pan-European student survey, EUROSTUDENT, showed that working in Estonia is a normal part of student life and working next to school is a rising trend. The proportion of young people in employment has increased from 40 per cent to 53 per cent, and the average student works an average of more than 30 hours a week.

To make the process of applying for jobs and internships easier for students and to bring together companies and students studying at Estonian universities, a Job Shadowing Day will be organised in Ülemiste City for the fifth year in a row before the summer internship period. 

‘There are many different internship and job offers, which makes the whole application process difficult. In addition, students may not know which company to go to. It is important that specialty managers from different schools help to carry out preliminary work on the interests of students, so that the city, for its part, can offer students a suitable company to visit during Job Shadowing Day,’ said Kadi Pärnits, Representative of Ülemiste City developer.

Pärnits added that it is very important to create smart environments that value education, such as Ülemiste City. ‘It creates a place for young people to come. It is important that young people stay in Estonia to work or would gladly return here. To this end, we try to give them many different experiences that would enable young people to contribute to Estonia.’

The labour market is constantly changing 

Katrin Sulg, project manager for Job Shadowing Day, said that although there is a large concentration of IT companies in the campus and only IT companies have been used for Job Shadowing Day, young people in Ülemiste also want to get acquainted with representatives of other specialties. Thus, students in the fields of IT, logistics, personnel, finance and healthcare are also consciously involved as job shadows. 

The campus has enjoyed successful cooperation with TalTech and the Estonian Entrepreneurship University of Applied Sciences for many years, which is why the focus has been on involving more schools for Job Shadowing Day. This year, cooperation was also established with Tallinn Health Care College, which mediates nurses and optometrists to Ülemiste Health Centre and Qvalitas Medical Centre on Job Shadowing Day. 

According to Ulvi Kõrgemaa, Vice Rector of Academic Affairs at Tallinn Health Care College, Job Shadowing Day provides a good opportunity to see and experience the inner life of organisations. ‘Who knows, maybe some students will find a lifetime opportunity. Work and the labour market are changing, working at the classic punch-the-clock-workplaces is receding and being replaced by new solutions. In healthcare, different job opportunities are reluctantly spreading – for obvious reasons, innovations are not very easily accepted.’

Kõrgemaa said that the university is innovative in its thoughts and activities and oriented towards smart solutions. ‘It is the innovative work environment, such as Ülemiste City as a whole, that is the best way to awaken new thoughts, get inspired and see new opportunities.’ 

More than 70 students will take part in Ülemiste City’s Job Shadowing Day. Companies participating in Job Shadowing Day include, for example, ABB, Tallinn Airport, Playtech Estonia, Nortal, Securitas Estonia, the Estonian Tax and Customs Board, Mainor, Insly, Ülemiste Health Centre, Qvalitas Medical Centre, Fortum, and Wisecounter.