Students' Choice Awards

The awards were established to give the student voice an empirical basis that is not only widely covered, but also representative. Each year, the corresponding poll forms part of the Germany-wide survey for the ‘Fachkraft 2030’ study series – a research project initiated by jobvalley in partnership with Maastricht University in 2012, which has since been closely followed. Around 15,000 students participate in each poll.

- Survey period: 21/09/2021 to 05/10/2021

- Participants: Around 15,000 participants throughout Germany

- Number of votes: Six votes for each participant = over 85,000 individual votes

Over 350,000 students have been surveyed on a wide range of topics since the research project launched in 2012. The surveys take place twice a year at the start of each semester. In terms of content, certain parts of the survey are the same each time (topics like course of study and satisfaction) and other parts are not set in stone, which has allowed the initiators to include the awards survey. Since its launch, the study series has been academically led by the Department of Labour Economics of Maastricht University. Further information on the respondent composition, representativeness and survey type along with selected findings can be found in the study published each year.

The results of the Students' Choice Awards are determined by a set of questions consisting of three individual questions, which are as follows:

Question 1: Which of the following companies are you familiar with? (Selection of 5 random companies + 1 mobility company, tick box option = yes/no)

Question 2: Would you like to work for company XYZ? (Answers: ‘Yes, during my studies’; ‘Yes, after I’ve graduated’; ‘Yes, during my studies and after I’ve graduated’; ‘No’)

Question 3: How do you view company XYZ in terms of the following criteria: Career opportunities/promotion prospects; Equal opportunities; Sustainability/environmental aspects; Trustworthiness; Innovative power? (Answers: ‘Bad = 1’; ‘Not very good = 2’; ‘OK = 3'; ‘Good = 4’. Not asked for mobility company)

In order to solely use statistically significant findings, only companies that at least 20% of the students had heard of were considered for the Students' Choice Awards. The companies that awards went to were the ones that ...

- ... most students would like to work for after graduating (Students‘ Choice Award Graduates category).

- ... most students would like to work for while studying (Students‘ Choice Award Students category).

- … received the highest score in one of the five categories (Students’ Choice Awards in the five categories career prospects, equal opportunities, sustainability, trustworthiness and innovative power).

- … most students would like to work for after graduating and that belongs to the mobility sector (Students’ Choice Award in the Mobility category; special award).