IT students already being approached by employers during their studies
According to Folia, IT students are often approached by employers before they have even finished their studies. The reason: there is a major shortage of employees with an ICT background. ‘They send a message along the lines of: “I can see that you're studying computer science. Do you already know what you want to do after you complete this programme?”’
The Dutch ICT sector is struggling to fill thousands of vacancies. In 2020, there were 83,000 outstanding vacancies in the ICT sector. At the same time, only 17,000 graduates were available, according to the Financieel Dagblad
newspaper.
This scarcity is not going unnoticed by IT students. For example, Pim Meulensteen (21), a student of the double Bachelor's in Mathematics and Computer Science, receives messages from recruiters in his inbox every month, despite having indicated on LinkedIn that he does not wish to hear from recruiters.
Pim is not the only student who is regularly approached by employers. Companies are also trying to persuade students to work for them through the Amsterdam study association for Computer Science (Via). For example, a conference that members of Via could attend was recently organised. Companies were given the opportunity to promote themselves at this conference.
According to Thomas Jurriaans (21), fundraising board member of Via and Data Science student, active promotion among students does indeed make sense. As he told Folia, ‘We have noticed that many of our members end up working for our largest sponsor.’