Students gain relevant work experience at sustainable project office

Since the transition from studying to working can be quite challenging, it’s important to start exploring and familiarizing yourself with the professional field during your time at university. Students’ career guidance is important to the UG, which aims to prepare them for their future careers as well as possible. Project office SAMEEN is a prime example of an organization where, alongside their studies, students can further develop their skills while working on societal issues at the same time. The project office was established by students with the goal of making the labour market more sustainable from the bottom up.

Sustainable project office for students

At sustainable project office SAMEEN, students are given the opportunity to gain relevant work experience within their own field of study. In 2012, SAMEEN was founded by students as a corporate association with the goal of bringing students into contact with companies’ issues and projects to help tackle and solve these. SAMEEN provides students with the opportunity to develop themselves in the field of sustainability with a job alongside their studies. For example, there are communication students who are involved in the marketing and communication of sustainable building projects, and students with a technical background who advise on energy transition issues within their project. Students are at the centre of this enthusiastic, flexible, and young company.

Relevant part-time job

In 2014, Janine Bos (29) started as the chair of the board of SAMEEN alongside her degree programme Business Administration. ‘I applied to the vacancy for project leader that was shared within my honours programme. This position perfectly matched my degree programme in Business Administration and it sounded very interesting to me because I wanted to know more about sustainability.’ Eventually, the board at that time recognized her potential as chair, and she took on the role. Within her role as chair, she was able to put the theoretical insights from her programme into practice, but she also particularly learned a lot of new things. She considers the ‘young spirit’ of the company a great asset.

Famke Kramer (23) is a Master's student of Communication and Information Studies at the UG who works as a marketing and communication officer at SAMEEN’s in-house team. She came across the vacancy at SAMEEN through her programme’s Career Services and was enthused by the possibility of already gaining relevant work experience alongside her studies, while contributing to a sustainable future at the same time. ‘At most companies, you can only start once you’ve graduated, or you can just do a placement. Since you can work at SAMEEN while you’re still studying, it allows you to further develop your skills and determine where your interests lie.’ The skills she has been developing within her degree programme, such as collaborating and attending meetings, aid her in this  position. Certain theories from her studies are relevant to the communication and marketing aspects as well.

Seamless alignment

Three years ago, Bart Scholten (24) started at SAMEEN as an account manager, a part-time job that aligned seamlessly with his Master’s in Sustainable Entrepreneurship at Campus Fryslân and allowed him to further his passion for sustainability. Since he was interested in sustainability, he explored this field of study during his Bachelor’s in Environmental Sciences by attending events, volunteering, and building a network. ‘At events, I often ran into the same people, including employees from SAMEEN. Eventually, I had a meeting with Janine, and shortly after, I started working as an account manager.’ Now that he has graduated, he works at SAMEEN full-time. What he recognizes most from his degree programme are theories on institutional entrepreneurship. He wrote his thesis on how market standards perpetuate themselves, and Bart observes that SAMEEN explicitly diverges from these standards by, for example, allocating students to suitable positions based on their achievements instead of automatically hiring them as junior officers.

Would you like to know more about career orientation during or after your studies?

Have a look at Career Services, or the Student Portal