At a time when the aerospace development engineering industry is keener than ever to attract bright young talent into the industry, Aerospace Testing, Design & Manufacturing is organising its first ever student day to take place during the exhibition.  

The student day will take place on Thursday, 17 April – the final day of the show. Shuttle buses will pick up students from both TUM (Technischen Universität München) and Universität der Bundeswehr and deliver them to the New Munich Trade Fair Centre. The day is also being promoted to students studying in other Bavarian cities including Augsburg, Erlangen Nünberg, Ingolstadt and Würzburg.  

As well as looking at all the cutting edge technologies displayed on the exhibition floor, the day's programme features the opportunity for students to bring along their resumes and talk to Human Resources representatives from some of the industry's key players, including EADS, RUAG Aerospace, IABG, DLR (German Aerospace Center), Brunel, WTD 61, Eurocopter and MTU.  

Students will also be encouraged to join in a panel debate entitled "Is Germany losing leadership in engineering?" at 11.30am in Auditorium 3. Peter Pletschacher, President of the Luftfahrtpresseclub will chair the debate. The speaker panel is: Dr Martin Haunschild, Chairman and Coordinator of Aerospace & Satellite Navigation for the State of Bavaria; Professor Broichhausen from Bauhaus Luftfahrt; Mr Siebeneich, President of Brunel and Professor Schilling from the University of Würzburg.  

The session will kick off with a video message delivered by Bavarian Minister for Education, Dr Thomas Goppel.  

Aerospace Testing, Design & Manufacturing spokesman Ian Crawford said: "Many industries are suffering from a skills shortage but the aerospace industry is particularly worried that not enough graduates are entering the field to fulfil future needs. Responding to exhibitor interest in this area, we decided to organise a special student day at the show this year. If the day proves to be successful for both exhibitors and students we will certainly look at increasing its scope next year."