Hessentag is also a job exchange for thousands of students

Whether police, Bundeswehr or customs – Hessian institutions also use the Hessentag as a platform for young talent. The interest of young people this time is even greater than in Fritzlar last year, said Melanie Göttlich, Head of Marketing in the Department of Young Commerce, the Hesse police, the German Press Agency. Again and again entire school classes come to career advice at the state festival.

Talks show that potential applicants have particularly high respect for the sporting part of the police. « We don’t go down in the requirements, » said Göttlich. Anyone who is working in a football game in a full police contour must be physically fit. As further important characteristics for aspiring police officers and police officers cited structuralization, resilience, joy of making decisions and the ability to act and focus under stress.

The Bundeswehr also operates young advertising on its exhibition area at the Hessentag. School classes are picked up by bus free of charge and driven to the festival area, where, among other things, a tornado and a combat helicopter can be seen.

Around 1,000 pupils are invited to the special show every day, said Christopher Benz from the Bundeswehr career consulting office in Fulda. According to his experience, many of the young people are initially interested, but they often decrease when they find that their training location in a barracks is further away from the hometown. « Mobility is an important factor, » said Benz.

The Bundeswehr’s approach also causes criticism in some groups. On the second day of the state festival, the “Alliance Peaceful Hessentag”, which is supported, among other things, protested by the DIE LINKE party, protested against advertising at folk festivals and for minors at Hessentag.