Tremendous Success for Career Friday!

Career Friday, held as part of the 29th Fakuma international trade fair for plastics processing, was a complete success in terms of promoting young talent. More than 400 interested young people took advantage of the invitation to visit the trade fair on 18 October 2024 and have a look behind the scenes of the plastics industry, establish contacts and explore opportunities for their own professional development.

“Career Friday” was a special highlight at this year’s Fakuma: The trade fair promoters, the exhibitor council and the exhibitors organised the campaign for pupils, students and young professionals in keeping with the motto “Mould Your Dreams, Mould Your Future”, in order to inform young people about career opportunities in the plastics industry and, at the same time, impart knowledge concerning plastics. The campaign was a huge success and sparked enthusiasm for everyone involved. Many exhibitors organised shuttle services, unusual activities, various thematic tours of the trade fair booths and unique glimpses behind the scenes of plastics processing.
“Career Friday was a highlight in Fakuma’s trade fair history,” declared Dr. Christoph Schumacher enthusiastically, head of global marketing at injection moulding machine manufacturer Arburg and member of the exhibitor advisory board. “This campaign is of tremendous significance in our estimation – for the individual participating companies, for young visitors to the trade fair and for Fakuma itself.” Arburg brought 30 apprentices and students to their booth and organised a number of activities for interested parties. The company was able to demonstrate how important the plastics processing industry will be for the future, and how urgently the industry needs committed young professionals.

“It was a great opportunity for young people to get to know our industry,” praised Michael Wittmann, owner and CEO of the Wittmann Group and a member of the exhibitor advisory board. Susanne Zinckgraf, head of marketing at Wittmann, was also delighted with the number of young people who took advantage of the offerings made available by Career Friday: “Career Friday is a great idea,” she confirmed. “I think that Fakuma has really set a trend with this event.” Young people showed great interest in the robots at Wittmann’s booth. Zinckgraf is convinced: “These are tomorrow’s mechatronics engineers. Career Friday is a great platform for actively tackling the shortage of qualified personnel and promoting a positive image for our industry,” said the marketing manager, who hopes that Career Friday will become a recurring feature in the future.
Enthusiasm for the campaign was no less evident at the trade fair booth operated by Austrian injection moulding machine specialist Engel. All day long on Friday, groups of students and their teachers were on site, mainly from the higher technical colleges (HTLs) in Vorarlberg, Bregenz, Dornbirn and Rankweil. They gathered information in a targeted and well-prepared manner on various topics related to their studies such as automation, plastics and manufacturing. Discussions were focused on technological aspects, as well as career opportunities after graduation. Highly interested pupils from secondary schools with a technical emphasis also gathered information from Engel. “A very interesting project,” summarised Stefan Engleder, Engel CEO, with regard to the campaign for attracting young talent.

Bernd Schäfer, managing shareholder of Deifel Buntfarbenfabrik and member of the exhibitor advisory board, was also very satisfied. “Career Friday at this year’s Fakuma was one of the trade fair’s highlights.” Schäfer and his team welcomed a total of roughly 50 pupils and young people, and provided them with insights into the field of plastics and typical job profiles in a masterbatch company. “A great idea and very well organised,” said Fabian Heuel, division manager of sales at Technotrans Solutions, in praise of the campaign. The company combined the topic of refrigeration technology with cocktails for the young people and demonstrated a self-developed cocktail cooler that had been developed as part of the master’s examination for a mechatronics engineer in refrigeration technology.
The wheel of fortune with attractive gifts and cash prizes, by means of which Klaus Kunststofftechnik invited young people to the booth, was also very well received. Thanks to an AI project at the Innonet collective booth, pupils and students were able to immerse themselves in their dream careers. The association of plastics manufacturers, Plastics Europe Deutschland, also arrived at a thoroughly positive conclusion regarding the campaign for attracting young talent. “Educational work is essential for introducing young people to science and technology. And this is why it’s so great to be able to use a trade fair to offer pupils insights into real-life practice,” emphasises Alexander Kronimus, managing director of Plastics Europe Deutschland. On twelve trade fair tours organised by the association, pupils were able to experience up close how plastics are produced, processed and recycled – from granulate to product and back again. “I hope that once again today we’ve been able to inspire lots of pupils to consider training or studying for a technical profession,” says Tanja Rühl, education officer at Plastics Europe Deutschland.

It seems that this goal has been achieved and that the young trade fair visitors have been inspired: “I’m looking forward to learning about new plastics processes today,” said a young guest from Austria. “I’m particularly interested in new technologies for injection moulding machines,” said another young man. One of the pupils was also very excited about what the day would bring: “We’re excited to see what the companies have to show us. We don’t know that much about plastics yet and we’re hoping to go home with more knowledge.” There can be no doubt that this was indeed the case. Career Friday served as an excellent basis for making specific decisions: “We’re at a technical school for mechanical engineering,” said one young student. “Next year we can choose either plastics technology, environmental technology or automation technology. We’re attending the trade fair today in order to make the decision easier.”
The organisers arranged six tours with selected topics, each of which wound its way through the exhibition halls twice on Career Friday: 1) “Circular Economy: From Granulate to Product and Back Again”, 2) “The Wonderful World of Plastics Throughout the Value Chain”, 3) “Designing for Recycling and Climate-Friendly Plastics Production”, 4) “Why the Plastics Industry is so Important for Achieving Climate Goals”, 5) “A Journey Through the Plastics Industry – Between Energy Efficiency and Sustainability”, and 6) “The Plastics Industry: Tomorrow’s Climate Heroes are Working Here Now”.

“This day was a very special experience,” summarises Georg Knauer, who co-organised Career Day for trade fair promoters P. E. Schall and accompanied visitors through the exhibition centre as one of the tour guides. “Interest was enormous and genuine right from the outset, and what the exhibitors and other stakeholders achieved here deserves a great deal of respect.” The appealing and coherent overall concept, including a Carrer Day guide, flags, video tools, demonstrations, T-shirts, caps and a raffle for a zeppelin flight, helped to create a lively and entertaining atmosphere. “The young people will take something lasting back home with them,” points out Knauer. “Conversations in the near future with family and friends will revolve around this experience, which will contribute to a better understanding of plastics and their great importance.”
“We were delighted to experience this first Career Friday at Fakuma in Friedrichshafen,” says Bettina Schall, managing director of trade fair promoters P. E. Schall, summarising the campaign. “I would like to express my sincere thanks to all exhibitors, key players and all of the young participants for their respective contributions, and for their interest in this campaign,” emphasises Bettina Schall. The topics of plastics, plastics processing, technology and circular economy will now resonate in classrooms, lecture halls and workshops. “We’ve succeeded in sparking enthusiasm for the topic of plastics, and I hope that this day will bear much fruit for the future.” Mould your dreams, mould your future! We were very happy to support Career Friday and look forward to seeing all participants and guests again at the 30th Fakuma here in Friedrichshafen from the 12th through the 16th of October, 2026!”

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Schall has developed successful business platforms with internationally recognised trade fairs for quality assurance (Control), optical technologies, components and systems (Optatec), stamping technology (Stanztec), automation in production and assembly (Motek), bonding technology (Bondexpo), plastics processing (Fakuma), sheet metal working (Blechexpo) and joining technology (Schweisstec). This has given rise to entirely new markets in various sectors, whose protagonists are distinguished by tremendous innovative strength, comprehensive systems competence and practical application solutions.