During the summer, visitors are always numerous at the Pairi Daiza park. To cope with this influx, students from different backgrounds are welcome to work in an extraordinary setting.
The students are on vacation, but some take the opportunity to work. Why not do it surrounded by animals: Pairi Daiza is one of the biggest recruiters and calls on 600 students during the high seasons.
Alix is a student in management assistantship, but this summer, she spends it at the Pairi Daiza park. “I start at 9am, we have a briefing with the managers. Then, I’m at the ticket control, we check that people have a valid ticket to go home” she describes to us. This work is beneficial to her for these studies, because she meets visitors from all over Belgium and beyond on a daily basis: “I have a lot of languages in my studies and it allows me to practice Dutch and English, since we have a lot of foreign or Dutch-speaking visitors.“.
To beautify the 70 hectares that make up the park, the gardeners also play an essential role. However, this is not the vocation of Théo, an industrial engineering student: “I arrived here, the flower with the rifle, and one taught me. We clean, we prune, we water, we lay out the beds to make the park as beautiful as it is“. This work has, a priori, nothing to do with the profession that Theo is studying and yet the link does indeed exist: “A lot of my teachers say the job of an engineer is to solve problems and adapt. Coming here and learning from square one is a way of solving a problem and adapting“rejoices the young gardener.
And to take care of the animals?
Caring for animals, on the other hand, is not given to everyone: “The students who come into the zoological are students who have done studies related to the care of animals. Whether it’s a caretaker, veterinarian or veterinary assistant.” explique Claire Gilissen, la porte-parole de Pairi Daiza, “They do an internship and if it goes well, both for them and for us, we offer them to extend the adventure as students and then we see what can happen afterwards“.
This is the case of Hélène who wants to become a veterinary assistant, but already holds a key position with lemurs: “I check the lemurs are okay, call them and count them, check for small wounds, and then feed them“. This well-filled program is all the more pleasant as it is done closer to these primates: “Me in this job, what I prefer is the direct contact we have with the animals. They are very close to us, they can climb on top of us if they want to and it’s really nice to be so close to them and to share moments with them.” justifies Hélène.