To address this issue, Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, Hochschule Darmstadt, Hochschule RheinMain and Technical University of Darmstadt, in cooperation with Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, founded the International Career Service Rhein-Main (ICS RM).

The universities and universities of applied sciences have pooled their career expertise to help students overcome the obstacles they face when they set out on their career path or want to start a business. Students from an immigration background and with an intercultural profile can choose from a wide range of offers on topics such as entry into professional life, career advice, new work, networking and entrepreneurship to help them navigate the transition from student to skilled professional. 

Career entry

On the bilingual German-English online information platform, students have 24/7 access to useful tips on career guidance and job applications. Video tutorials, interviews and tips from other students provide them with everything they need to know for their career entry – flexible and on demand.

Gaining in-depth knowledge through interactive workshops and trainings in preparation for the application process: In job application training courses, students learn about important methods for various scenarios. The offer ranges from job search to preparing the “perfect” CV and writing a convincing cover letter to career trainings exclusively for female students. The aim is to ease the students’ path into the working world.

Career counselling

Here, students are offered tailor-made guidance for their entry into the working world. While the multi-level Career Guidance program does cover classic counseling such as CV checks, it also goes one step further: Students benefit from a counselling network that supports them on a long-term basis in finding their way into the working world. Dedicated coaches help students improve their career opportunities – at eye level and tailored to the students’ individual needs.

In individual coachings, students learn how to define their professional goals, to recognize their strengths and reflect their fears. They learn how to cope with pressure and how to plan their career or startup enterprise at their own pace.

Talks and individual counselling

Career Development Talks offer students the chance to ask for specific advice on their application documents. In this way, they receive optimum support throughout the entire course of their studies in preparation for the start of their career. 

New Work

Corporate Culture – VerlinkedIn RheinMain: In this module option, students get to know the corporate culture of various companies and establish valuable contacts in the Rhine-Main region through excursions offering insights on site. The offer is amended by preparatory talks and follow-up podcasts to process the learning experience.

In an ever-changing working world, future skills such as good communication skills in a work environment or basic knowledge about modern technical tools such as AI and programming languages are indispensable. The ICS RM offers workshops where students can learn hard skills and soft skills needed today as well as tomorrow. The interactive workshops are held online – either in German or English – to enable students to participate from wherever they are.

Leuchtturm-Karrieren Rhein-Main (videos): This series offers inspiration from alumni with an immigration background who made a successful career for themselves in the Rhine-Main region. Captivating videos depict their career path and their work or projects, showing tomorrow’s professionals how to find their purpose.

Networking

GROW@Goethe for internationals – career mentoring: Personal mentoring helps students to establish a strong professional network, provides them with valuable insights into a future field of work and with personal support from experts from the respective specialist fields. Through the mentoring program, students learn to develop their professional identity and broaden their competences – enabling them to confidently enter the working world. 

Round table “Rhein-Main Goes International”: Once each term, decision-makers from the economic sector, politics and universities meet to exchange ideas and develop projects to improve opportunities for entry into the regional economy. Students with an immigration background and intercultural profile are invited to actively participate and shape the conditions for their professional future.

Entrepreneurship

Putting sustainable business ideas into practice: In the workshops offered by Startup Sustainable, students work jointly in a creative team to develop their own ideas into a viable business case, with a focus on green business ideas and sustainable entrepreneurship.

Startup Sustainable – Train the Trainer: This workshop is aimed at teachers who want to learn, in a practice-oriented manner, about methods for and gain knowledge on inclusive and sustainable startup funding. The aim is to embed entrepreneurial education at universities and to specifically promote students with an immigration background and intercultural profile. 

Startup Podcast: Get inspired by the success stories of regional founders! In this podcast series, alumni with an immigration background, who have successfully founded a business, tell their story about their path to professional independence. With their stories, they want to encourage other graduates to take this step. 

Social Entrepreneurship – especially females: The ICS RM wants to help put innovative social ideas into entrepreneurial practice. In this module option, which is specifically aimed at female students, students develop their own social business in a laboratory of ideas. Through workshops and exchange with seasoned entrepreneurs, their ideas can be developed into a business plan. 

German text: Julia Pirzer, ICS RM 

The German text was first published in the UniReport 5.24 of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main