Germany‘s largest provider of educational and vocational fairs
IfT Institut für Talententwicklung GmbH

In 2026, in addition to our vocatium and parentum face-to-face fairs, we will be again offering a videochat fair for young people and parents with nationwide reach. Through intensive work with parents and good contacts in schools, we succeed in involving and supporting the important target group of parents in the career choice process of their children. The digital fair complements the vocatium and parentum face-to-face fairs. The format enables exhibitors to inspire online visitors even over long distances with less time and expense.

With the parentum fairs you also reach the important target group of parents with children of career choice age. Visiting the fair together with their children or alone, parents learn about current training and career paths. The young people who visit our parentum fairs are usually between 14 and 20 years old.

Companies, universities, vocational schools or other educational institutions can inform mothers, fathers and their children about their offers in personal conversations and lectures.

The parentum fairs last four hours. They take place on weekdays, e.g. from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. or on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. A special supporting programme with lectures and workshops rounds off the fair.

At our fairs we also bring together young people with providers of abroad programmes, former programme participants as well as companies and universities that have a connection to foreign countries. Especially the parentum fairs show parents and school students the many opportunities abroad.

The fair guides "Chancen ..." bundle the educational offers of participating training companies, universities, vocational schools and academies as well as the counseling services of various institutions. As an exhibitor, you are represented with a one-page profile in the guide. Additional pages or the back cover can be added. 

Every year we publish new fair guide editions, in 2026 there will be more than 80 editions, one edition per fair. The total circulation in 2026 is around 450,000 copies.

All vocatium exhibitors are not only represented in the printed fair guides but also with a digital profile. If desired, the profile can be extended with audio and video contributions to generate more attention. Your profile and educational offers can be found via an exhibitor search and a job search on our student website www.vocatium.de and is promoted during our preparatory vocatium lectures at participating schools.

In Germany, a school student's path to a suitable occupation (the so-called career orientation) begins in the school environment. In almost all federal states, career guidance measures are part of the curriculum and thus part of the school lessons. Therefore, attending career guidance fairs is often a fixed component. At the fairs, school students are encouraged to obtain information directly from companies, universities and institutions about vocational and academic opportunities.

Career fairs with school students are a very popular recruiting tool to attract trainees or students. Usually, young people and exhibitors meet spontaneously at these events without any preparation. Often the young people are overwhelmed by this encounter. They are too shy to approach the exhibitors or do not know what to ask. This is where the concept of the vocatium fairs comes in. Intensive preparation and scheduled appointments make the exchange at the fair particularly productive for both exhibitors and students.

The German vocational education and training system differs in many respects from vocational education and training in other countries. German school leavers have a wide range of options for entering a profession: via recognised vocational training, university studies and mixed forms of vocational training and university studies.