IfT Institut für Talententwicklung
Germany‘s largest provider of Educational and Vocational Fairs

The IfT Institut für Talententwicklung (Institute for Talent Development) is Germany's largest organiser of educational and vocational fairs. Every year we bring 4,000 companies, universities, vocational schools, academies and other education providers into contact with 450,000 young people at nearly 80 trade fairs. Benefit from our unique trade fair concepts and our many years of experience.

• We can help you find the right trainees and students.
• To do this, we bring you into scheduled and prepared appointments with young people from Germany at our vocatium fairs.
• With our parentum face-to-face events you can reach the important target group of parents.
• The vocatium video chats enable you to recruit potential trainees and students without being tied to a specific location and to also involve parents in their children's career choice decisions.
• The vocatium and parentum fairs are suitable for making young people aware to your offers for stays abroad during (parentum) and after school (vocatium).

• We have been organising career fairs with interview appointments for nearly 25 years.
• We have regionally rooted staff on site at all locations where we organise trade fairs.
• In many places we cooperate with chambers, associations or the employment agency.
• National and regional patrons support our work.

Verena Heilandt (English)
+49 40 226909810, v.heilandt@if-talent.REMOVE-THIS.de
Heike Thomsen (English, Danish clients)
+49 48616184742, h.thomsen@if-talent.REMOVE-THIS.de
Susanne Altadill Antolin (Spanish)
+49 71512552179, s.altadill@if-talent.REMOVE-THIS.de
Marie-Laure Rabourdin (French)
+49 821 44414949, m.rabourdin@if-talent.REMOVE-THIS.de

or search for a contact person in the respective region.

Our fairs are offered almost everywhere in Germany – from metropolises to smaller towns. This makes the events accessible to almost all school students.
2025 we offer

• nearly 80 vocatium fairs
• 1 nationwide vocatium videochat fair
• at least 9 parentum face-to-face fairs

You can find all trade fair dates here.

The vocatium educational and vocational fairs are the core and premium product of the IfT. We organise them as face-to-face events. The vocatium fairs focus on school students who are one year away from graduation.

• It is based on binding appointments between young people and exhibitors which we arrange in intensive preparatory work.
• We prepare the school students for the fair in class and hand out the fair guides personally.
• We bring the young people together with you as a suitable training company, university, vocational school, academy or other education provider according to their wishes.
• We provide the school students with valuable information to prepare them for the interviews. Hence the appointments are particularly productive and valuable for both sides.
• Our staff, who are rooted in the respective region, maintain close contacts with the schools and other important network partners.

The vocatium fairs are one- or two-day events. They are offered at 78 locations in Germany, in all federal states.

Module I: media (print and online)
Module II: academy (vocatium Akademie)
Module III: appointments
Module IV: fair stand and fair service

You can find the detailed services in the registration form.
All dates and locations can be found in the trade fair overview.

In 2024, in addition to our vocatium and parentum face-to-face fairs, we will be offering a video chat fair for young people and parents with nationwide reach.

Through intensive work with parents and good contacts in schools, we succeed in involving and supporting the important target group of parents in the career choice process of their children.

The digital video chat fair complements the vocatium and parentum face-to-face fairs. The digital format enables exhibitors to inspire young people and parents even over long distances with less time and expense.

At the pluspunkt.ausland (pluspunkt.abroad) educational forums we bring together young people and providers of abroad programmes, former programme participants as well as companies and universities that have a connection to foreign countries. The pluspunkt.ausland forums show parents and school students the many opportunities abroad.

pluspunkt.ausland is usually integrated into the parentum fair as a special forum. We use our excellent school contacts to promote the event.

In addition to the pluspunkt.ausland forums, many providers of abroad programmes also take part in our vocatium fairs.

The fair guides "Chancen ..." bundle the educational offers of participating training companies, universities, vocational schools and academies as well as the counseling services of various institutions. As an exhibitor, you are represented with a one-page profile in the guide. Additional pages or the back cover can be added. 

Every year we publish new fair guide editions, in 2024 there will be nearly 80 editions, one edition per fair. The total circulation in 2024 is around 450,000 copies. The fair guides often also contain some representations of non-fair exhibitors. 

You can also view our brochures online:

vocatium news, our digital information and learning forum on the topics of career choices and education in Europe, is integrated into our website www.erfolg-im-beruf.de. On vocatium news young people can find valuable articles as well as a media library containing podcasts and videos.

Special focus topics (for example health professions, working in the financial sector, IT professionals, studying abroad) are regularly covered.

All vocatium exhibitors are not only represented in the trade fair guides but also with a digital profile on our website www.erfolg-im-beruf.de . If desired, the profile can be extended with audio and video contributions to generate more attention among young people. The profile can be found via the search exchange and is advertised as part of our preparatory vocatium lectures in class of the participating schools.

We organise workshops and web seminars in order to prepare school students, teachers, parents and representatives of exhibitors and network partners for the vocatium fairs. Every year, we hold many thousands of these preparatory events in the run-up for our 80 fairs.

For exhibitors and network partners we offer workshops and conferences for Human Resources managers and other interested parties from companies and institutions on aspects of training, studies, career choice, youth research, recruiting and talent development. 

For school students an almost year-round programme is offered to support their career choice and application process. During the three to four months before the vocatium fairs, the IfT team prepares the school students (in person, alternatively digitally) for their visit to the vocatium fair.

Further training is offered for teachers on topics such as time management and body language. The IfT also organises conferences in order to exchange experiences.

In Germany, a school student's path to a suitable occupation (the so-called career orientation) begins in the school environment. In almost all federal states, career guidance measures are part of the curriculum and thus part of the school lessons. Therefore, attending career guidance fairs is often a fixed, sometimes compulsory component. At the fairs, school students are encouraged to obtain information directly from companies, universities and institutions about vocational and academic opportunities.

Career fairs with school students are a very popular recruiting tool to attract trainees or students. Usually, young people and exhibitors meet spontaneously at these events without any preparation. Often the young people are overwhelmed by this encounter. They are too shy to approach the exhibitors or do not know what to ask. This is where the concept of the vocatium fairs comes in. Intensive preparation and scheduled appointments make the exchange at the fair particularly productive for both exhibitors and students.

The German vocational education and training system differs in many respects from vocational education and training in other countries. German school leavers have a wide range of options for entering a profession: via recognised vocational training, university studies and mixed forms of vocational training and university studies.

Vocational education and training: This is an important form of vocational education and training which is highly valued, not only by German companies. It takes place primarily through dual training. Dual because practical, application-oriented learning takes place in the company parallel to learning at a vocational school. In some cases, there are also purely school-based apprenticeships, which take the form of attendance at a vocational school supplemented by integrated practical units. Dual training usually lasts 3 years.

University (of applied sciences and arts) studies: These are pure study programmes at a university or a college with an academic focus and degree. Practical knowledge is sometimes acquired through integrated internships.

Dual study programmes: Dual study programmes offer a mixed form of practical vocational training in a company and academic study at special (dual) universities. Upon graduation, the academic degree of Bachelor is acquired.