On the occasion of the European Year of Skills, which continued in 2024, we are relaunching our special campaign: through a series of interviews with standardization professionals, experts and business leaders coming from a variety of backgrounds, we will explore the interaction between innovation, skills and standardization in some of the most relevant sectors for Europe’s long-term competitiveness.
For the sixth episode in this year’s series of interviews, we present two young professionals at Danish Standards.
Every year, Danish Standards organizes a free half-day workshop for young professionals. The focus is on standards and standardization and the impact they have on technology. The workshop is a great opportunity to network with other young engineers and technicians and learn about ways to get involved in national and international standardization activities.
Over the years, more than 80 young engineers and technicians have participated in the workshop. As a result, several former participants have become involved in standardization work at the national and international level. Two young professionals, Larisa Xanthopoulou, Product Sustainability Manager at Danfoss Drives, and Jacob Lynge, Senior Product Development Engineer at GRUNDFOS, shared their thoughts on the benefits of participating in the Young Professionals programme.
Why should young engineers join the Young Professionals programme?
Larisa Xanthopoulou: I believe young professionals should participate in standardization because that gives us an opportunity to influence the direction where the industry is going, and have an impact on setting the direction towards a more sustainable and responsible industry future. I also believe it really helps to build professional networks early in your career and gain experience working closely with the industry experts.
Participating in standardization has definitely given me deeper understanding of the technical aspects of the industry, but also working with other industry stakeholders has broadened my overview of the industry needs and helped me realize the importance of collaboration and consensus building and the role that standards play in ensuring the quality of our products and services.
What can young engineers gain from participating?
Jacob Lynge: Young professionals need to participate in standardization to develop a better professional base for their work profile. They have a good opportunity to gain knowledge about the process behind what really drives their development. And I have seen that it gives young professionals a profile that is attractive to several large companies.
Having knowledge in standardization is also something young professionals want. What has been a positive surprise for me is that when you work on standardization, you meet a lot of different people from different companies with different agendas, but it really just feels like one big family.
When you participate in the work at Danish Standard, but also in general, you see that everybody wants to show off the things they have and the developments that are happening to drive this, because we do it for the common purpose of improving whatever areas you're in. This has surprised me a lot.
