Aarhus BSS students receive award for assignment

For three Aarhus BSS students, the end of the semester included a cash price of DKK 10,000 when the winner of this year’s case collaboration with the City of Aarhus was revealed at the Town Hall.

[Translate to English:] De tre Aarhus BSS-studerende Thomas Haase Jensen, Daniel Astrup Holst-Hansen og Ingrid Arentoft Mikkelsen flankeret af rådmand Thomas Medom (tv) og beskæftigelseschef Vibeke Jensen (th). Foto: Aarhus BSS kommunikation.

Thomas Medom, alderman at the Department of Social Affairs and Employment, and Vibeke Jensen, head of the Employment Department, received the class, which consisted of a mix of economic and political science students, and proceeded to reveal the winning team: Ingrid Arentoft Mikkelsen, Daniel Astrup Holst-Hansen and Thomas Haase Jensen, whose team name was Actus Consult and who contributed with the analysis “Et Aktivt Aarhus” (An Active Aarhus).

The municipal employment efforts were the focal point of this year’s case assignment, and the alderman welcomed the students to the “engine room of the welfare society”.

“The field of employment is one of the strongest elements in this engine room. Whenever Danes meet a new person, we like to ask: ”What do you do?”. In many other countries around the world, people will ask: ”How are you doing?”, said the alderman.

The head of the Employment Department admitted that this year’s assignment was tough.

“The field of employment is complex consisting of various service offerings and measures,” said Vibeke Jensen. She offered the following reasons for why the project “Et Aktivt Aarhus” came out on top:

“We emphasised the coherence between data and conclusions, the dissemination, and whether the project contributes with new observations that we might not have thought of ourselves. Here, “Et Aktivt Aarhus” was the strongest contender.”

Professor Lars Skipper from the Department of Economics and Business Economics at Aarhus BSS, thanked the entire class.

“We are not aiming to offer vocational training programmes, but its important that we are able to build bridges between the university and the world that you will be joining.”

The students emphasised that the process had sometimes been frustrating and tough, but also exciting.

“Making comparisons across the fields of economics and political science has been particularly exciting, “ said Thomas Haase Jensen.

“The civil servant of the future needs to be able to put a field into perspective and not only think in either political or economic terms,” says Vibeke Jensen, who is also a member of the employer panel for the Public Policy degree programme at Aarhus BSS.