The first civil engineers graduate - pioneers at the University of Gävle

After five intense and instructive years, the time has come. Eight students at the University of Gävle are now graduating as the University's very first civil engineers.

– It feels good to finally be done. It feels very exciting, exciting but I will miss student life, says Linn Gäfvert, one of the newly graduated Master of Science in Geospatial and Positioning Engineering.

How have these five years been for you?

– It has been five incredibly fun years. I have learned a lot and developed as a person.

'We embarked on something uncertain'

Starting a new MSc program is no small undertaking and for both students and teachers, the journey has been fraught with new ground to break.

– We embarked on something uncertain, both we teachers and the students. I'm pretty sure that none of the students really knew what they were getting into on that first day. It has been an inspiring and exciting journey. The best thing has been to follow how the students have grown and matured along the way and are now really ready to make their mark in working life, says Fredrik Zetterquist, Programme Director for the Master of Science in Geospatial and Positioning Engineering at the University of Gävle.

Students have helped shape the training

Every lecture has been new, every session unique - and every feedback valuable. The feedback from the students has played a key role in how the program has been revised for the next batch of students starting this fall.

– The students who are now graduating have experienced some 'teething problems', but have also helped to shape the program. It has given us invaluable experience, and we now have a program that works very well and is well adapted to the skills needed in society, says Fredrik.

A bright future in the labor market

Even though the new graduates are the first to leave, there is no doubt that their skills are needed.

– Neither we teachers nor the students themselves are worried about the future. But it will require commitment from the students themselves. They need to be proactive in selling their skills and showing what they can do. And they all have that drive, says Fredrik.

For Linn Gäfvert, a summer job at Trafikverket (the Swedish Transport Administration) now awaits and after that she has "a few things going on" and she has the feeling that it will work out.

– Now I'm going to take my first step into working life as a graduate engineer. Find what I want to work with and think is fun.

Text, photo and video: Marie Hägg Zetterlund