Lena is a “Fridays for Future” activist, and she’s a skilled craftsperson. She successfully finished school, but now she doesn’t know which path to take. Considering different options will eventually pay off.
Lena is a “Fridays for Future” activist, and she’s a skilled craftsperson. She successfully finished school, but now she doesn’t know which path to take. Considering different options will eventually pay off.
Lena meets three of her friends in the park. They all just graduated from school and are planning their next steps. Only Lena is at a loss…
Lena is stuck. Combining her interests doesn’t fit a traditional concept. Or does it? Lena decides to take a year off and try various things that interest her. She still has her old school job in a café. On the weekends, Lena regularly works as a waitress.
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In the following months, a plethora of opportunities opens up in front of Lena. She documents and shares her experiences on social media, and she realises that many young people can’t decide easily on a career path.
Back home, Lena reflects on her experiences and finally decides what her next career step will be: a dual studies programme. The practical training in a business will help Lena to later find an easier entrance into the job market—and this is really her thing. And even better: Lena’s time in Slovenia will be acknowledged as a pre-study internship. She already discussed this with the administration. She’s also excited about her Slovenian language course being accepted as a digital certificate.
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Lena had a good start with her dual studies programme Sustainable Engineering. The programme is very diversified: a combination of topics like physics, chemistry and materials science, hardware and software development, and project management at a vocational university. She’s really happy with her training company, an agency that develops sustainable digital product landscapes—the perfect fit for Lena.
The company and Lena’s university are communicating via a digital platform (in German). Lena is using all the available technological tools to connect her practical work and the theoretical part of her studies. The university’s 3D printer is a valuable asset during the company’s practical training. Additionally, she can also access other universities’ facilities. You can learn how at the research project DigiLab4U:
Lena made it! After finishing her studies she’s now a project manager in her former training company because her commitment and innovative ideas through the years helped her to land her own project. For an important customer, she’s developing a smart watch which uses sensors to link air purity and pedometer. The watch indicates when the air is clean enough to safely perform physical activities like jogging. Lena is now able to campaign for sustainability on a professional level, and with her own income she is able to support non-profit organisations from time to time.
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Konrad knows exactly what he’s going to do: He will be an apprentice to a nearby mechanical engineer, so that he can later continue his father’s business.
Simone will be a doctor, following her mother’s footsteps.
Florian has an extraordinary adventure waiting for him—a trip around the world. He doesn’t really have a detailed plan for this. He just wants to see new countries and meet a lot of interesting people.
Lena has also thought intensely about her interests: In school, she has been a “Fridays for Future” activist and even organized events in this context. She’s absolutely certain that sustainability needs to be an essential part of her next step. She also has a knack for crafts—her father’s workshop has always been her second home. Lena is very practical. University programmes have always been way too theoretical for her. But now, she is wondering if she can maybe combine both worlds.
First, Lena reads up on all the possible vocational trainings. Here, she would learn right on the job and get a full work experience. But it really depends on the training company wether she can focus on her own interests there, especially sustainability.
That’s why Lena also has a look at all the universities and vocational universities where she could maybe find the perfect programme for her interests. You can search through all German study degree programmes with brief descriptions via data provided by the German Rectors' Conference.
While there is a broad range of possibilities, Lena doubts she is made for studying. She finds an interactive personality test on the “wirklichweiterkommen” website (in German), an initiative of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. This test could help her find out what really fits to her.
In the future, it could be a lot easier for people like Lena to get to know all the alternative education programmes. “Academic studies or vocational training? Try both”: A Europe-wide platform could support the organisation of trial days at universities—even as online Open Days or virtual campus tours. The platform could also help to find internships in businesses and provide orientation for dual studies or a voluntary social year.
Lena attends a trial lecture at a technical university she found online. She participates in a seminar on Sustainable Materials Science and an adjacent workshop for prospective students on Sustainable Technical Design in the engineering department.
Lena now also wants to find out more about vocational trainings as a possible next step. She reads a lot about it and wonders, if she could combine this with a stay abroad. So she arranges for a six-week internship in Slovenia with a local carpentry and wood building company. Even during a vocational training, an international internship is possible and is viewed as a huge benefit by all involved.
Lena successfully completed an eight-week Slovenian intensive course and is fascinated by this new language. She also found an online language course (similar to duolingo) which she uses additionally to practice.
Lena is not only a skilled craftsperson, she’s also always had a keen interest in natural sciences, which helped her realise what really matters to her: sustainability. In order to find out how good her STEM skills really are, she takes a digital self-assessment test (in German).
