Career Service
A career service is an institution within or in the vicinity of a university that is entrusted with the preparation of students and graduates for entry into the world of work. Other names: Career Center , Career Service Center .
Career services are first established in the 1970s and have been increasingly introduced at German universities and technical colleges since the 1990s. Following the example of Anglo-American institutions, they impart job- relevant knowledge through advice, seminars, company contact fairs and lectures, establish contacts with employers, bring companies into better contact with the respective university and in this way improve the employability of graduates. Individual institutions, such as the Career Service at Chemnitz University of Technology , also offer students their own publications on the subject of applications and career entry.
In addition to the university's own career services, student career services have also been set up at individual locations, for example in Berlin, Bonn and Magdeburg. Also commercially oriented career services, which for example focus on job placement (also called placement).
Deviating meaning : In individual cases, “Career Services” also refer to the targeted planning of career paths and coaching of working individuals by private providers.
Organization, training and further education
The foundation university's own Career Services at as all German universities was both the German Rectors' Conference (HRK) and the Standing Conference , the Center for Higher Education Development demanded and education policy makers. In the meantime, these institutions have established themselves in numerous German universities and technical colleges and provide important support and orientation for students and young graduates.
In 2002 the Career Service Network Germany ev (csnd) was founded in Berlin. Career services from universities that are members of the HRK can acquire membership. The aim of the association: further training of employees in career services, support in the implementation of new career services, exchange of experiences.
Considerable uncertainties are currently arising when advising on disruptive developments in professional fields as a result of digitization . Career planning can therefore only take place with reservation of unforeseeable developments and must deal with the oversupply of information and career paths.
The Global Career Development Facilitator is an internationally recognized certificate for the Career Service .
University career center in Austria
In Austria, almost every large university as well as the technical colleges offer a career center for students and graduates to facilitate entry into the job market. One of the first university career centers in Austria was the WU ZBP Career Center , which was founded in 1983. At that time, the ZBP was regarded as a unique pilot project in Austria at the WU ( Vienna University of Economics and Business ), but due to its success it developed into a model for setting up new university career centers in Austria. Through collaboration and cooperation with career centers at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien Career Center) and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (alumni association of Boku), many graduates of economic, technical and natural sciences courses can be placed with renowned Austrian companies every year.
The Career Center of the University of Vienna (UNIPORT), the University of Graz (Career Center of the Karl-Franzens University), the University of Innsbruck (Alumni Service), the University of Klagenfurt (Job Service) and the University of Salzburg (Career Center) take care of the placement of Young academics from various fields of study. Universities of applied sciences also have internal career centers that take care of the accommodation of their graduates.
Career Service in the post-socialist countries
In the post-socialist countries, the newly established career services of the universities faced enormous problems. In most socialist countries, universities were extremely selective. For example, in Romania only 8% of principally entitled secondary school graduates were admitted to study. This approval usually meant a job guarantee in a specific subject. At the same time, an almost final career choice decision was made at the age of 14 or 16. These conditions continued at Chinese universities until the liberalization of the labor market around 2003. This resulted in a high level of uncertainty among the students. Even today, over 50% of Romanian students feel extremely unsure about their subject and career choice. Measured against this problem, the capacities of the career services in the post-socialist countries are hardly sufficient, from which the demand for short-term training courses for student advisors below the master’s level is derived.
literature
- Hans-Jürgen Puhle / Hans. N. Weiler: Career Centers - A Challenge for University Policy, ISBN 978-3-89684-035-6
- csp - career service papers (csnd magazine, available there)
- Susanne Jörns: Vocational preparation through Career Services as part of university training, dissertation 2002,
Individual evidence
- ↑ Career Service TU Chemnitz: Career Service: Own publications: . Chemnitz University of Technology. Retrieved January 7, 2013.
- ↑ On these aspects cf. Esther Ostmeier, Maria Strobel, Isabell M. Welpe: Proactive career design as a central skill for digital transformation: How can Career Services support students and alumni? In: Career Service Papers 15 , csnd eV, 2017.
- ↑ Nicoleta Litoiu (2010): Career Counseling at Romanian University Level. In: Buletinul Universitatii Petrol - Gaze din Ploiesti, LXII no. 2, pp. 170-176
- ↑ University of Göttingen