Slogan of the exhibition – Knowledge is the Smartest Investment.

Highlight of the exhibition – CAREER DAY.

Exhibitors: 96 educational institutions, organisations, enterprises from 12 countries.

Events of the exhibition: 26 conferences, seminars, speeches, presentations and discussions.

Exhibition area: 5424 sq.m.

Useful contacts:

Exhibition Project Manager Jolanta Masiulienė, phone (8 5) 2686884,

E-mail: j.masiuliene@litexpo.lt;

Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuanian, Head of Communication Division Aida Janionytė (8 5) 2191229 (conference at the exhibition: Choose Carefully - Your Study is the Programme of Your Future).

CAREER DAY partner is CV Online LT, UAB (organiser of the seminars I Have Lost My Job! Loss or New Opportunities, Good Manager Even in Hard Times Remains Good).   Contact person – Marketing Director Rita Karavaitienė, phone 8 620 373 35.

Statistics of the exhibition

For several years by now, the exhibition has been organised under the slogan Knowledge is the Smartest Investment and invites not only young people to visit it.   The exhibition has interesting information for everyone who believes that investment into knowledge and self-improvement pays back with interest.

For school leavers, this exhibition represents a splendid opportunity to familiarise themselves with curricula and offers of all Lithuanian universities, biggest colleges, post-graduate vocational schools and 11 foreign educational institutions, to learn about their admission conditions and to choose where to study.

Studentswill find the exhibition as a splendid place for collecting information about higher study stages, possibilities for further studies abroad, finding more about secrets of successful job seeking. For the first time in the history of the exhibition, all Lithuanian universities will introduce their graduate and post-graduate study programmes.

Working people will find a lot of information and offers for completion of incomplete studies, remote learning, language learning, improvement of professional qualification. 

Managerswill find over 60 training programmes on strategy and management, leadership, marketing, sales promotion, finances, and many others.   They should also find the programmes offered by ISM University of Management and Economics and TVM Managers Training Centre relevant. ISM University of Management and Economics will introduce the managers’ graduate studies and training courses for top and middle level managers. The managers’ graduate study model is adapted according to the study model applied in BI Norwegian School of Management. The studies are based on Scandinavian academic principles and practical business experience. TVM Managers Training Centre will introduce managers’ graduate studies, training courses for passing financial broker's qualification examination, obtaining chartered international investment analysts' CIIA licence, etc.

The Professions Live project launched in the last year’s exhibition will be held this year as well. Lithuanian vocational training institutions participating in the exhibition will invite to the crafts city again, where trades will be introduced through attractive demonstration of each field: old traditional decorative crafts, jewellery, advertising and printing, flower arranging trade, photography, hairdresser's, beautician's professions, mechatronics, etc. Visitors will be included into action. Thanks to this mode of presentation, visitors will be able to feel the specifics of every profession and craft, to gain better understanding of production of various articles, origin of services. The participants of the Professions Live project will invite the visitors to various events also demonstrating mastership of individual trades. Costumes, fashion and hairdo shows, barmen’s and confectioner’s shows, etc. will be organised.

96 educational institutions, organisations, enterprises from 12 countries participate in the exhibition:  Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Denmark, Great Britain, Netherlands, Canada, France, Russia, Finland, Switzerland, Germany. 

Studies available in Lithuania will be introduced by the state and private universities, great majority of state and private colleges. The most popular and marketable crafts and professions will be presented by vocational schools.

Information about the studies abroad will be provided by 28 educational institutions from 11 countries in the world. While, the number of foreign exhibitors in the first exhibition Studies in 2003 was only 3 foreign universities.

Universities from Finland (Novia University of Applied Sciences), Germany (German Cancer Research Center), Russia (Kaliningrad State Technical University) participate in the exhibition for the first time. New website Minule (www.minule.com) of Smartbrand international organisation launched this January will introduce itself to public for the first time. The website is intended for school children and students interested in studies in European, American and Australian regions. Another first public presentation will be made by Kastu International organisation, which was founded to help people in fulfilling their dreams and obtaining higher education abroad.

Distribution of exhibitors by the themes of the exhibition:

*Note: one organisation may represent several thematic groups may be represented.

Complete list of participants is available in the electronic catalogue of the exhibition at website www.litexpo.lt

Highlight of the exhibition – career issue

The exhibition will highlight the career theme and will hold the CAREER DAY for the first time in its history, which will offer useful information for everyone who is not interested in any job but rather the job they enjoy and which suits them.

The CAREER DAY to be held on the 5^th of February is organised by the Lithuanian Exhibition and Convention Centre LITEXPO together with its partner CV Online. The CAREER DAY will house the events dedicated to people who are only searching for their vocation, already working but looking for new opportunities, employers and everyone who has lost their jobs. Visitors will be invited to test their theoretical knowledge in practice – to meet the employers participating at the exhibition and to discuss employment and career possibilities in their companies. 

Employers having their exhibition stands in the gallery of the Hall 5 of LITEXPO will wait for school leavers, students and everyone interested in career planning. 

Vilnius City and County Business Employers’ Confederation participating in the CAREER DAY will inform about the specialists in demand on the labour market today. Considering the today’s situation, communicating with its members and partners, the Confederation notices a few prevailing trends: employers are searching for employees and specialists less active than a few years ago but are still searching; when recruiting new employees, the most important criteria are their competences, working experience, compliance of their personal characteristics with the company’s values. The main obstacles for a candidate to be employed include dishonesty, lack of frankness, toadying to the future employer preventing the perspective employee from revealing his/her true personality, determining the humans resources specialists’, employers’ decision on the right candidate. 

Mars Lietuva, UAB will introduce its unique corporate culture, career and talent development programmes, possibilities for practicum placement in the company. According to the humans resources manager of the company Dalia Vitkuvienė, Mars company provides specialists with the possibilities to fulfil their most ambitious goals, to improve themselves through learning from the colleagues with immense international business experience, to achieve quick career development in the units of the Company not only in Lithuania but in foreign countries, as well. 

The oldest retail chain in Lithuania and the biggest employer in the Baltic States – MAXIMA LT, UAB will participate at the exhibition of this type for the first time. According to the director of the personnel department Metodija Vidūnaitė, the company expects this participation at the exhibition to serve as an excellent start for introducing international career opportunities and perspectives to young specialists at MAXIMA LT retail chain. M. Vidūnaitė states that the company can offer jobs not only for cashiers, as some people wrongfully think. The company is looking for employees in a number of fields, such as commerce, production, logistics, information technologies, human resources, etc. 

A lot of events intended to people interested in job search, career opportunities and perspectives will be held on the CAREER DAY. President of Vilnius City and County Business Employers’ Confederation, Mr. Rimvydas Jasinavičius will deliver a speech The Specialist Needed by the Labour Market Today, CV Online will organise seminars on extremely urgent topic of today and will search for answers to the following questions: what to do if you have lost your job? Is it the beginning of new opportunities? At the seminars, specialists will discuss the situation, trends and prospects on the Lithuanian labour market, will advice people where and how to look for suitable job offers, will analyse the examples of motivational letters and CVs, will talk about the importance of the preparation for a job interview, typical mistakes done during such interview.

People searching for job should find the seminar about the importance of the first impression relevant to them, at which the image specialists will give also a lot of practical pieces of advice.

Those who are only starting to plan their future should find the coaching (success training) seminar How to Understand Your Vocation? very interesting. Usually the thoughts of who we want to be and where to work do not come to us until our study years. But according to the coaching specialists, career planning is inseparable from the choice of studies. During the seminar, specialists together with the audience will try to answer the questions of highly importance to young people: why it is important to have your own goal rather than the one thrust by parents or society, why it is important to choose the studies one likes rather than the ones that are popular or fashionable. 

Young people should find self-cognition methods very interesting, as when planning your own future and choosing the profession, especially for the first time, it is important to consider also psychological reasons of your choice, i.e. interests, values, inclinations, your strengths and weaknesses. At the exhibition, Lithuanian labour market training service and Aš ir psischologija magazine will present self-cognition tests that might be very helpful when choosing a career and making job decisions. 

Events of the exhibition

26 conferences, seminars, discussions, presentations will be held during the exhibition.

The first day of the exhibition, 4th of February is devoted for the events for school leavers. On that day, school leavers, teachers, parents and everyone interested in the changes taking place in the higher education will have an opportunity to meet the Minister of Education and Science Gintaras Steponavičius. The theme of the open discussions is Choose Carefully – Your Study is the Programme of Your Future. On Thursday, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, ISM University of Management and Economics, Vilnius College introducing its technology programmes will introduce themselves not only at their exhibition stands, but also in different events. Seminars on studies abroad will be held.

Kastu International organisation will introduce the opportunities of studies in foreign countries. Kastu International was founded to help people to fulfil their dreams of obtaining higher education abroad. Consultants from the organisation not only provide unbiased information about the opportunities to study a desirable speciality abroad, but also accompany the future student throughout the entrance procedure.

5^th of February is THE CAREER DAY. On this day, the events dedicated to people who are only searching for their vocation, already working but looking for new opportunities, employers and everyone who has lost their jobs will be held.

National Mechatronics Competition 2010 organised by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania together with Festo, UAB will be held on the same day. The purpose of the competition is to propagate attractiveness of modern technologies and to promote interest in engineering studies and to find the best team of the Lithuanian colleges. The winning team will be trained for participation in the European Mechatronics Games 2010 to be held in Portugal. Kaunas, Kaunas Technical, Klaipeda State, Panevezys and Vilnius colleges will send their teams to the competition.

The 6^th of February is THE DAY OF PROFESSION AND YELLOW BUSES. The biggest event of the day will be the conference Choose Carefully - Your Study is the Programme 

of Your Future organised by the Ministry of Education and Science. Participants of the conference will learn about the novelties in the general secondary education examinations 2010, procedure of admission to the Lithuanian higher schools, support to students. Studies programmes in Lithuania and abroad will also be discussed, aspects to be considered carefully when choosing studies abroad will be highlighted at the conference. 

The Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania will organise a conference for the specialists of Vocational information points for the first time in the history of the exhibition. The purpose of the conference is to introduce information relevant for the specialists of the Vocational information points founded in schools. 

On the last day of the exhibition, Vilnius Pedagogical University will invite visitors to a separate presentation Education and Career at Vilnius Pedagogical University.

On the 6^th of February, studies in Denmark and Germany will be introduced.

Visitors of the exhibition

Structure of the visitors of the exhibition according to 2009 statistics:

65 % school children;

15 % students;

13% employees;

7 % employers.

According to the visitors’ polls conducted during last year’s exhibition, it was discovered:

63% of visitors attend the exhibition with the aim to collect information about studies in Lithuanian higher schools;

37 % of visitors are interested in information about career planning;

20 % of visitors are interested in studies abroad;

12 % of visitors are searching for information about professional qualification improvement;

8 % of visitors are interested in language courses;

8% of visitors are interested in possibilities to complete unfinished studies or to study again because it is necessary for the career.

5% of visitors were interested in the possibility to learn different crafts.

Lottery of the exhibition

Kastu International organisation will organise a lottery for the visitors. The prizes of the lottery will be three unforgettable trips: Riga – Saaremaa island, Tallinn, Prague – Vienna – Budapest and a trip to Danish higher education institutions.  

LITEXPO press centre

Phone (8 5) 2686821

r.keliuotyte@litexpo.lt