Business education as a route into human resources

Jan Fiebich completed his Master's degree in Business Education just a year ago and immediately landed his dream job as a HR officer at Deutsche Bahn. He laid the foundations for this with an internship during his Master's degree. This made it much easier for him to start his career than many of his fellow students. Today, the 26-year-old applies the knowledge from his degree programme in his day-to-day work.

A business education degree programme combines business administration with Education Studies, which raises exciting questions for training and further education: How can further training measures be planned and evaluated in a company? How can a company promote lifelong learning? How can employees' skills be recognised and developed? These are questions that also arise time and again in human resources management and require an examination of learning processes and conditions as well as support opportunities in the workplace.

Immediate career entry after graduation

This is exactly Jan's job as a personnel officer at Deutsche Bahn, one of Germany's largest railway companies. The former student has already been working for a year in what he considers his perfect entry-level job. An internship during his studies opened the doors for him. Jan's area of responsibility essentially comprises two fields: Firstly, he looks after managers by providing them with information about possible benefits or succession planning and skills management, among other things. On the other hand, Jan is responsible for areas of personnel controlling, i.e. compiling and analysing statistics and key figures relating to the company's employees. In this field, he gains an insight into processes, figures and procedures. The 26-year-old organises his working week in a combination of working from home and in his office in Minden, where Deutsche Bahn Systemtechnik GmbH is based.

After Jan completed his Bachelor's degree in Osnabrück, he moved to Paderborn University. "The programme profile seemed quite unique to me compared to other universities in NRW or Lower Saxony," he says, looking back on his decision. He was also impressed by the faculty's online presence and the modern facilities in the Q building. One year after completing his studies, Jan is even certain that he liked the "feeling" in Paderborn even better than in Osnabrück, so he doesn't regret the change of location at all. The HR officer also raves about the consistently positive memories of his time in Paderborn - even off campus. For him, "the student life in one place" and the branching of the buildings on campus is a unique selling point that he would not want to miss.

Favourite places, memories and life as a student

"It feels like UPB is the only university that still has paper student ID cards," says the former student, thinking back to details that he now describes as something that could be improved. His favourite thing to do in spring was to meet up with his friends at the barbecue café during his lunch breaks and he usually spent his study breaks on the top floor of the library. "I liked the atmosphere in the WiWi field," he says, referring to his favourite places at the university. Jan was also one of the first students to study Business Education following the reorganisation of the curriculum. Jan's main takeaways from his studies were the ability to self-reflect and familiarise himself with complex topics, but he also remembers a lot of what he learnt in lectures. During his studies, Jan already considered human resources management as a career goal, as he has been interested in the link between people and business since his first semesters. "As business education also focuses on people within business, I think the degree programme is very well suited to working in human resources."

Internship in the research degree programme - an opportunity for a quick career start

In addition to his work as a student assistant at the university, the 26-year-old already gained a foothold with his current employer during an internship. A research degree programme is included in the 3rd semester of the course. Students can decide for themselves whether they want to complete a work placement, work at the department or spend a semester abroad. Jan opted for an internship at Deutsche Bahn. "It made my career start much easier." Jan would therefore advise all students to network beyond their studies. The internship enabled him to familiarise himself with processes, systems and employees, so that he was able to familiarise himself with his new tasks as a personnel officer without any great fears. Looking back, the former student still wishes someone had given him the advice to approach his studies in a relaxed manner and "to look left and right".

Either-or questions:

• Shared flat or 1-room flat? Flat
• Canteen or cook for yourself? Cooking for yourself
• Coffee or energy drink to wake you up? Coffee or energy drink
• Commute or leave home? Commuting
• Studying: last minute or with structure and a study plan? Structure
• Early to bed or straight from the club to the lecture theatre? Both

You want that too?

More information about the M. Sc. in Business Education.