From Breda to Den-Bosch: graduation project at educational publisher Malmberg

From vocational college to university-level logistics
“I started the Logistics Management programme in 2019,” Elisa explains. “After completing vocational college and havo, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. But during the study choice check, logistics came out as a good match. I decided to go for it – and with success!” She’s been living in student accommodation in Breda for five years now and looks back on her student days with pleasure, despite the Covid years.

Logistics turned out to be much broader than she initially thought. “You can really go in any direction: from warehousing to events, healthcare, or even fashion. My fellow students are now working in all sorts of sectors. The basic knowledge you get from the course can be applied in so many ways.”

Graduation project at Malmberg
For her graduation research, Elisa found a spot at Malmberg. “I came across the vacancy on LinkedIn and was able to start within two weeks. It went surprisingly quickly.” Malmberg is a major player in the Dutch education sector, with teaching methods for primary, secondary, and vocational education.

Although the publisher doesn’t have its own warehouse and outsources transport, logistics still plays an important role. “There’s a small logistics team of five people. My task is to map out Malmberg’s supply chain in more detail, analyse data, and provide recommendations for improvements. The publisher has a few peak delivery periods each year: for primary education, it’s from February to April. For secondary education, the peak is just before summer, when schools receive their new teaching materials.”

Learning to deal with obstacles
Elisa works with confidential data and can’t share much about her findings, but one thing is clear: “My recommendations are a priority for the company, and they want to implement them as early as next year.” Of course, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. “I thought my data analyses were ready for visualisation, but the dataset turned out to be too big and too complex. Then you have to adapt. I started brainstorming straight away and tested new solutions. Flexibility is really important.”

A warm welcome and valuable experience
She finds the support from both Malmberg and BUas to be very helpful. “The team leader of supply chain supervises me closely, and I have daily contact with her. On top of that, my lecturer from BUas keeps an eye on my progress.”

What advice does she have for other students? “Ask for help if you get stuck. Sometimes you just can’t figure it out on your own, but together you can find a solution. And be open to input from colleagues. People with years of experience can offer surprising insights.”

And how’s the atmosphere at Malmberg? “Very supportive,” says Elisa enthusiastically. “Colleagues from other departments regularly pop in to see how things are going and offer to help. That makes it even more enjoyable.”

She’s not entirely sure what the future will bring. “Hopefully I can stay at Malmberg for a few more months after graduating to help them put my plan into action. In the autumn, I’m off abroad for at least six months. After that, I’ll see what comes next. I find the production and warehousing side of logistics really interesting, so I want to explore that further. But one thing’s certain: I’ll definitely keep working in logistics.”

Elisa’s tip for students still looking for an internship or graduation spot: start early, look beyond the open vacancies, and don’t let setbacks discourage you. “It takes time, but if you look carefully, you’ll find a place where you can really make a contribution.”