The activities of Arts Karriere are based on close internal collaboration with the academic environments involving heads of department, education consultants and department consultants, academic staff and students. Activities are also based on external collaboration with alums, companies and trade unions.

Participating students are involved in career developing activities in order to strengthen their awareness of the link between theory, practice and the labour market. Students practice how to frame what they have learned, what they can do, and what they want to do. Many students find that it can be difficult to create a language for the skills and competences they have acquired during their studies.

By participating in career developing activities, teaching staff and career consultants help students establish a link that gives insight into the labour market, makes them aware of their competences and gives them the tools needed after graduation, as the graduates themselves must be able to tell employers about what competences they bring and how these add value to the workplace. The fact that employers may be reluctant to hire a humanities graduate is nothing new, but students and teaching staff at Arts are constantly working to break down barriers.

Competence awareness, labour market knowledge and job hunting tools

Arts Karriere works on the basis of the following areas:

• Competence awareness through competence workshops, where students practice putting into words what they can contribute both professionally and personally. These workshops are often integrated into teaching and are either conducted by a career consultant or developed in collaboration with teaching staff, who themselves integrate exercises into their teaching. The workshops are organised in collaboration with the academic environment and are therefore only offered on the degree programmes that want this focus and collaboration.
• Knowledge of the labour market through a series of thematic events reflecting the labour market encountered by students. An important part of these activities is to include the personal stories of alums, with which the students themselves can associate. The Arts CompanyDating event brings students and companies together every year. In addition to finding project placement, a student job or a regular job, the event is a practice run for both students and companies to meet each other. As a supplement, internal and external studies are included in communication with students in order to describe the opportunities after graduation. Knowledge about the labour market is also incorporated into workshops held in connection with teaching.
• Job hunting tools both in connection with open events for all students at the Faculty of Arts and as part of integrated career activities. These tools are tips and exercises on writing a good job application, writing a tailored and relevant CV, creating a LinkedIn profile and activating your network, etc.

All of the above areas contribute to increasing students' career learning and understanding. The goal is to help students in the transition to the labour market by giving them the tools, and understanding of how, to find their first job after graduation.

In addition to these activities, students can book individual career guidance sessions via the Arts Karriere website.

Gaining insight into opportunities and practicing articulating their own competences make the transition to the labour market considerably easier, because the students thereby connect their own learning and specialist knowledge to the opportunities available on the labour market.

The career activities at the Faculty of Arts aim to reach the students through a variety of activities, so that as many students as possible benefit from the knowledge and sparring from Arts Karriere. It is therefore crucial that the consultants at the career centre and teaching staff help introduce the students to the career activities available, as this makes it possible to reach more students and help the students who look for and participate in these activities at their own initiative as well as those who do not.

Nuanced understanding of career

Career. It is a word that can trigger a lot of thoughts. Some people think about a job. Some may imagine a ladder that they can climb throughout life and finally reach the top. And others may think about being pushy and competitive. That is not how we think about career at Arts Karriere. We define career as the individual's working life, embracing the competences, values, interests and opportunities of the individual. It is something that grows throughout life – also while studying. Therefore, we see career is a tree, where elements such as education, family life, leisure time, interests, values, opportunities and competences are all branches.

To say that career is all about the job you land after graduation – and how you advance in that job – is far too simplistic. A career can take many directions. Some directions may be planned, while others are random. We can change motivation and values, and we can meet people who open up new career paths. Most of us will experience a career change or career twist during life. Therefore, a curious approach and willingness to try something different can be your compass towards your next job opportunity. In line with a changing society, we also change – and you will find that more leaves and branches grow on your career tree –  during your studies and after graduation.