Next year the European Association of Aerospace Students will be 50 years old. Or perhaps we should say 50 years young, because as well as being one of the oldest student initiatives in Europe, it is also one of the most active. This was certainly in evidence during a week-long special event in Hamburg, where students had the opportunity to meet key players from the industry, including IndustrieHansa.

The Hanseatic city of Hamburg was a very appropriate choice of venue, given its well-established status as an international hub for the aerospace industry. The participants, all aerospace engineering graduates, who hailed from several European countries, made good use of their time in Hamburg to meet representatives of movers and shakers in the industry, such as Airbus and Lufthansa Technik.

There was also an opportunity to meet with engineering service providers such as IndustrieHansa, one of Euroavia's premium sponsors. The would-be engineers spent a whole day with IndustrieHansa at Channel 9 in the inland port of Harburg. Here they listened to presentations on topics such as the role of engineering service providers in the aviation industry and IndustrieHansa's involvement in future product generations, and were also able to discuss graduate career prospects with industry insiders. For Katrin Buermann, personnel manager at the Hamburg office, events like these provide an opportunity to recruit graduates in a market with a shortage of personnel. It's a successful approach, because one participant actually signed an employment contract with IndustrieHansa's aviation specialists on the very day.