“Your Future – After School!” Career Fair: The Perfect Match for Businesses and Young Talent

The fair on May 20, 2026, was a resounding success and proved to be a real crowd-pleaser. It bridged the gap between theory and practice.

Why the “Your Future – After School!” fair was a magnet for young people

For students, the fair was the ideal place to kickstart their careers. Highlights for the next generation:

• Direct contact: No anonymous online forms, but real conversations on equal footing.
• Hands-on experience: Tools, machines, or software were tested right at the booth.
• Apprentice insights: Current apprentices shared authentic accounts of their real-life workdays.
• Instant feedback: Professional resume reviews provided quick clarity.

The added value for exhibiting companies

Companies today are competing for the best talent—this fair offered the perfect platform for that:

• Wide reach: Direct access to a large number of motivated young people from the region.
• Employer branding: Companies presented themselves in person as attractive and approachable employers.
• Efficient recruiting: Initial interviews took place easily right at the booth.
• Image building: Strengthening one’s own network and exchanging ideas with other industry representatives.

The fair once again clearly demonstrated that personal encounters are the key to a successful professional future. Over 2,000 visitors took the opportunity to learn about training and career opportunities from 64 dedicated exhibitors representing over 50 industries and to apply directly.

Thanks to the support of the KAUSA Regional Office NRW, entrepreneurs with an immigrant background were able to participate more actively in the fair for the fourth year in a row and strengthen their position in the training market in the Westphalian Ruhr region.

Special thanks go to the organizers: Unternehmen.Bilden.Vielfalt (UBV) e.V., Dietrich-Keuning-Haus, the Municipal Integration Center Dortmund (MIA-DO-KI), the KAUSA Regional Office of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Center for Ethnic Economy (ZEÖ), and the City of Dortmund.

A big thank you once again goes to the young people from the Trainee Talk, who spoke with great openness and honesty about their daily training experiences, thereby providing an authentic insight for many students.

Creative entertainment was provided by the UBV-Improssibles theater team, whose humorous improvisations on the theme of “The Job Interview” were a big hit.

The fair was held under the patronage of Hannah Rosenbaum, District Mayor of Dortmund’s Nordstadt.

There is already great anticipation for the next edition of the fair in 2027.