EPICO NextGen - Denmark
Since 2016, EPICO has been working with recent graduates, helping them get a good career start by acting as a bridge between new talents and businesses. EPICO NextGen was born out of a need to support newly-qualified IT talents get the skills industry sectors throughout Denmark are looking for. EPICO NextGen has a wide network of young IT professionals and aspiring students (from those, who have just graduated to more experienced talents with around 2 years of experience on the job market).
Background and context
NextGen's IT talents are the programmers of the future generation and the upcoming top developers within their respective niches. EPICO's NextGen IT initiative offer a network where recent and not-so-recent graduates can exchange tips and connect to industry sectors and provides a supportive environment to help young people make the first steps in their careers.
The initiative offers support to companies and businesses looking to hire available and skilled digital talents. By 2030, Denmark is likely to face a shortage of more than 19.000 graduates in ICT, resulting in companies needing additional resources to go after the right profiles and keep up with the IT race. EPICO NextGen acts as the link between companies and digital talents, strengthening Danish businesses and supporting tailored career development for IT graduates.
Why is this a good practice?
The initiative was born when EPICO as a recruitment and consultancy company noticed that many newly graduated young people had difficulty obtaining the right skills to enter a workplace. In addition, EPICO has knowledge of both the newly graduated candidates, but not least also knowledge of the customers, who can offer the candidates a company place. EPICO NextGen also works with a resource management department with people who daily sit and examine how the candidates and the company can be matched both professionally and personally.
EPICO NextGen is free, and open to all. When a young graduates submits a CV, this is evaluated and an EPICO agent contacts them if a potential job match has been found. Due to the large network of NextGen, candidates effectively have a personal agent to help them get to the job they want. This approach is part of the initiative's goal in offering a tailored path to each graduate. NextGen also acts as an intermediary between the candidate and the company and can provide relevant feedback to the company, thereby supporting the optimisation of HR purposes. This is done via continuous interviews alongside the onboarding and work process.
In addition to supporting graduates at the very start of their careers, EPICO NextGen also helps student associations and the rollout of good practice initiatives such as the women’s IT camps at the Aarhus University’s Department of Computer Science. A major focus of the initiative is to enrich the diversity of the IT industry and contribute to the visibility of IT opportunities for all, regardless of one's gender.
Find out more about EPICO's NextGen Initiative here.