Young ORTEC: 10 years of empowering young professionals at ORTEC

Young ORTEC has reached a significant milestone: celebrating its 10-years anniversary! Throughout these years, they have been organizing numerous activities for young professionals at ORTEC: from monthly lunch lectures to workshops and various fun activities to exchange information and develop professional and social contacts. Let’s reflect on their remarkable 10-years journey and highlight some of their memorable achievements.

Date9 Dec 2023

About Young ORTEC

Young ORTEC focuses on young professionals and young minded employees working at ORTEC. They contribute to their professional development by organizing activities that help this group develop in many different ways, both within ORTEC and in general. Each month, they organize 2 different activities: usually a lunch lecture and a workshop. The activities are connected to at least one of our three pillars:

Network: Interact with other young professionals to exchange information and develop professional and social contacts
Knowledge: Gain knowledge in a broad range of subjects
Talent: Improve (soft)skills that are useful for your career

Even though the target group is young professionals, all young minded ORTEC employees are welcome to join the activities organized by Young ORTEC.

Wouter Merkx, Board member at Young ORTEC

"Young ORTEC’s main focus is to contribute to the professional development of young professionals and young minded employees at ORTEC."

Reflecting on a decade

When asking Igor Rust – one of the founding board members - to reflect on the 10-years journey of Young ORTEC, he replies with pride: “As one of the founding board members of Young ORTEC, I’m very proud to see that something we set up 10 years ago relatively small and local, grew into a very active and international set-up. It now focuses not only on Dutch colleagues, but on all young-minded employees from all our offices. Also the variety of activities which are being organized are very valuable, from professional development workshops about negotiating and public speaking, to more serious and often overlooked – but very relevant – topics like mental health and how to cope with this.”

Igor Rust - Founding board member Young ORTEC

Igor Rust, one of the founding board members of Young ORTEC

"Over the past decade, Young ORTEC has steadily grown, transforming into a mature set-up consistently delivering significant value to our young minded employees, as well as to ORTEC as an organization."

Challenges & highlights

A lot has changed for Young ORTEC during and after the COVID pandemic. Where they were used to organize ‘offline’ lectures in the Dutch offices only, they were forced to organize activities online, and now also hybrid. The board explains: “Finding our way in online and hybrid activities was a bit challenging in the beginning, but it also opened the doors for international colleagues to join our activities. That’s just great!”

With all the numerous activities that Young ORTEC has been organizing over the past 10 years, it’s quite challenging to select just a few highlights. Two activities that Wouter Merkx and Igor Rust would like to highlight:

Workation: “We recently went on a Workation in Schleiden (Germany). This was an unforgettable experience capturing the perfect blend of work and play. It offered us a fantastic opportunity for socializing, fostering connections, and working,” Wouter says.
ICA membership: ICA (Inter Company Organization) is the exclusive network association for young professionals from 50 top employers in the Netherlands. Young ORTEC is a proud member.