Twenty-three school students from around Latvia (Riga, Salaspils, Jelgava, Iecava, Varaklani, Barkava) visited the ISSP UL on Job Shadow Day this year. The young people were given an opportunity to see the typical workday of scientists and take a tour around the institute, meet researchers, and ask questions about science, their work and daily life.
"Thank you very much for the opportunity to get to know your institute. I liked the best that we could visit the Laboratory of Organic Materials, cleanrooms and see the research work progress with our own eyes," shares Emma from the 10th grade of the Riga State 3rd Gymnasium.
The ISSP UL always actively engages in events for the school students: Job Shadow days, Researchers’ Nights, Physics Festivals, competitions, and Olympiads and always welcomes school excursions to the institute to attract the young generation to materials science, physics, and engineering. By showing them the great career opportunities at the institute, the institute communicates that this is a great place to do science not only on Latvia’s but on a global scale. This year children had an opportunity to shadow the institute’s director, sales manager, head of cleanrooms, researchers, and heads of laboratories from the Laboratory of Spectroscopy, Laboratory of Visual Perception, Laboratory of Optical Materials, and Laboratory of Organic Materials.
Leading researcher Andris Antuzevics from the Laboratory of Spectroscopy says: "My shadows were delightful this year - interested, knowledgeable and motivated to work in the direction of science; more shadows like that!"
Job Shadow Day aims to introduce students to the requirements of various professions and industries to help them choose a profession and be ready for the labor market. This program has successfully included career issues in education for many years, encouraging young people to plan their futures while still in school. By creating cooperation between schools, society and the working environment, Shadow Day promotes the integration of young people into society and the labor market in the future.
This year a record number of job shadows applied for the event in Latvia, over 34000. One thousand nine hundred ninety-seven shadow givers introduced students to various professions this year, offering 10991 vacancies.
Job Shadow Day is a globally recognized Junior Achievement career education program for students of grades 1-12. Students visit a workplace and observe the everyday work of a representative of the profession they are interested in.
