65 recruiters attend JDE 2018 for future graduate engineers

Published on 22 February 2018
Written by UMONS Administration
The “Journées des Entreprises” (JDE) event provides an opportunity for future graduates to have their first job interview and to look for a job, even before graduating. This event is also beneficial to companies, as they can make themselves known to future engineers and they have access to more than one hundred candidates at one […]

The “Journées des Entreprises” (JDE) event provides an opportunity for future graduates to have their first job interview and to look for a job, even before graduating. This event is also beneficial to companies, as they can make themselves known to future engineers and they have access to more than one hundred candidates at one single event.

JDEs have been organised for twenty years by the Faculty of Engineering (FPMs). They are designed to enable representatives of industrial and economic circles to create sustainable links with Master’s students, future engineers and future employees.

In terms of participation, the 2018 edition of the JDE was a resounding success. On 21st and 22nd February 2018, approximately seventy final year Master’s students from the FPMs, along with a dozen final year Master’s students from the Faculty of Science, had the opportunity to meet 65 potential recruiters, including multinationals, public structures and large companies, such as Axa, EDF, Engie, Alstom, AG, I-Care, Igretec, Proctor & Gamble, Vincotte, and Fluxys.

In previous years, a good 40 potential recruiters have participated in the JDEs. So there were 20 more this year. This increased participation can be explained by the lack of engineering graduates in the French-speaking labour market. A recent survey conducted by Fabi (the Belgian Royal Federation of Civil Engineers, Agronomists and Bioengineers) quantified this shortage to 500 graduates.

For all these major recruiters, the JDE of the FPMs is therefore a great opportunity.

“Throughout all five years of the Bachelor’s and Master’s, the teaching at the FPMs allows students to be in regular contact with the corporate world”, insists Pierre Dehombreux, the Dean of the FPMs. “Meetings with practicing engineers, who act as representatives for the industry, are organised from the first weeks of the first year of the Bachelor’s, and are maintained throughout the course. Constructive, collaborative projects are carried out with external clients, and the duration of the company work placements, organised for all the Master’s programmes, has been extended to two or three months for greater immersion n the profession.”

For more information about the JDEs, please contact dominique.stevens@umons.ac.be

Tel.: +32(0)65 374005