Shape your own future! – Seize the opportunity
On Friday and Saturday, 26 and 27 January, the 16th Chance job fair will take place. The fair for jobs and careers is a competent way of presenting the most important future-oriented topic in the region, strengthening Central Hessen as a business location and counteracting the growing shortage of skilled workers. This year's fair is following the successful trend of previous years. With 250 exhibitors spread across more than 8,500 m² of exhibition space, Chance breaks the previous record from 2023. It is now the largest trade fair of its kind in Hesse and beyond, making it an essential platform for bringing together employers and potential employees. The main topics of the job fair are wide-ranging and include career orientation, training and further education, as well as studying and jobs, and also skilled workers and stays abroad.
What makes the Chance so special is the balanced mix of participants: among the exhibiting companies are regional family businesses, numerous companies that take part in the job fair every year and mostly occupy their permanent stands in the halls, but also new exhibitors who want to use the fair as a presentation platform for the first time and provide new offers.
For example, visitors can look forward to new exhibitors such as Mahle Ventiltrieb or ORDAT Gesellschaft für Organisation und Datenverarbeitung mbH. The Kerckhoff-Klinik from Bad Nauheim is also represented this year. Furthermore, associations, institutions and regionally leading companies and chains such as clever fit Gießen, Fielmann, Adolf Roth and Ekom21 are of course present at Chance. The focus there, however, is of course also on the district craftspeople, who are contributing to overcoming the future shortage of skilled workers in the craft trades with innovative and creative ideas.
Rarely have the opportunities been greater to find a training place or a new career entry. Many companies are looking for successors, and the shortage of skilled workers continues to spread - in many sectors, it can be felt that digitalisation and technological change are transforming the world of work and education: Jobs are being eliminated, new ones are being created, and manufacturing and service processes are being networked (Industry 4.0). This is precisely where the trade fair comes in, with a focus on dual vocational training. Dual vocational training is a successful model for Germany, and strengthening it guarantees further development in industry, trade and services. At Chance, interested parties can make direct contact with large or small regional companies and discuss the possibilities of dual training. This will strengthen the skilled trades and at the same time pave the way out of the skills dilemma.
The career fair in Hessen is an important event for anyone trying to make the best personal decision when choosing a career. Whether it's about career orientation, training, studying, further education, changing jobs, re-entering the job market or taking on new challenges – as the largest platform for offers in the region, the fair ensures effective matching – the alignment of personal abilities and desires with the appropriate offers. This helps to minimise dropouts and wrong decisions. Its motto ‘Shaping your own future’ remains topical: it stands for the challenge of actively and responsibly seizing opportunities.
In recent years, Chance has established itself as the region's top job fair. Many companies use the fair to fill their vacancies. Concrete job offers at the fair and the opportunity to establish contact with a new employer here are often the start of a new professional future.
Many exhibitors accept applications directly at the fair. The offers from regional companies – which are also posted on the job and apprenticeship exchange – prove that a change of residence is not absolutely necessary to be able to learn and do your dream job. Training and further education institutes provide advice on programmes within the framework of professional development as well as on recognised qualifications in various specialisations.
But the Chance fair is also a proven port of call for all matters related to school, training and university studies. More than 300 occupations, opportunities and prospects in almost all sectors are presented by companies from industry, trade, skilled crafts, services and nursing. Occupations such as customs officer, nurse or optician are presented in a practical way. Trainees report on their daily routine in the company and at vocational school and are on the road as training ambassadors. The universities and vocational colleges represented provide information on their current courses of study and opportunities for a first insight into the world of work. Information is available from all institutions on a voluntary social year or au pairing.
