By Amrit M Year 12 German Rep and Saima C Year 12 German student

On Thursday 8th June, the Year 9 and 12 German students took the train from school to visit the Goethe Institut, the German cultural centre in South Kensington, London. It was a perfect, sunny day, and there were many other school groups in attendance too so overall the atmosphere was buzzing and brilliant.

There were various interactive workshops and talks on offer all day long, giving information  on how to choose your career to discovering more about the German workplace. During the workshops, we had the chance to practise our German speaking, and test our general knowledge (like matching up companies with the goods or service they provide). Downstairs, there was an information fair with stalls from different companies such as Lidl and BayernLB, providing details about career, internship and education opportunities in Germany.

We attended 3 workshops of our choice, but the one that stood out the most for us was  about ‘Career opportunities in Germany’, where we discussed the different types of job markets and the various different companies which were founded in Germany. We were certainly surprised to find out that Nivea, Puma, Fanta and Boss were all German companies. Having the experience to learn all these amazing things about German industry really made me consider pursuing a future career in Germany or in a German company. In addition, there was also an extremely insightful event, where companies offered more information about  apprenticeships or opportunities for Further Education in Germany for young international students. All these stalls had fascinating things to say about work life in Germany and Germany’s strong industry. There were even stalls showcasing more about the cultural background, for example one using VR to demonstrate the natural landscape of Germany and another offering a cookbook of traditional recipes – there were also a lot of freebies on offer from all the different companies. 

Overall, it was a super informative and fun day, providing extra insight into how the German language can facilitate the most amazing career choices and opportunities to connect to people around the world.

After the event we had just enough time for a picnic and ice cream in the park and came back to school right on time at 2.29pm, ready and punctual for our afternoon lessons, of course –  not to stereotype here ; )

Vielen Dank to Frau Schindler Smith and Frau Adam who accompanied the trip and made this experience possible for us.