Graduate Careers Australia
The Graduate Grapevine - Number 5, September 2006
Europe’s Graduate Careers Services Explored – the German Experience
While attending the annual NACE conference, held in California last May, Cindy Tilbrook (GCA’s Executive Director) had the opportunity to meet Andreas Eimer (University of Münster’s Head of Career Service) and Ruth Girmes (University of Duisburg-Essen’s Head of Career Service). In the following interview Andreas and Ruth give us a glimpse of the German Higher Education/Graduate Employment experience.
Cindy: I’m sure our Graduate Grapevine readers would be fascinated to hear about your respective universities. Can you tell us something about where they are located in Germany, their size and the kinds of courses offered?
Andreas: The University of Münster is one of Germany’s biggest institutions of Higher Education, and it is also one of the oldest established – founded on 16 April 1780. Despite its huge student population of almost 40,000, the dimensions of MünsterUniversity have remained human. Münster’s alma mater is not a campus university. Since its buildings are scattered all over the city, it is always surrounded by the buzz and bustle of everyday life. In addition to a wide range of subjects, the University of Münster can offer an equally wide variety of research programs. More than 500 professors and almost 2000 other academics are engaged in pure and applied research which is conducted in over 250 departments.
Ruth: The University of Duisburg-Essen is one of the youngest in Germany, being created in 2003 via a merger between two originally independent universities founded in 1972. It is located on two campuses and has a broad spectrum of teaching and research, Humanities, Social Sciences, Economic Sciences, Engineering, various other scientific departments, the Medical school, and the design departments. Its numerous institutes as well as the host of organisations affiliated with or attached to the university carry out diversified research with practical orientation. Because of this close connection to the world of work, the university is stepping up its activities in the area of continuing education. It has already established several institutions in Duisburg and Essen offering a large variety of programs leading to job-related qualifications. About 30,000 students are enrolled; with its 3400 academic and non-academic staff, it is one of the most important employers in the region.
Cindy: How are the universities structured in Germany? For example, are they like the American model with three- or four-year colleges, community colleges, ‘Ivy League’ universities, or is there less diversity?
Andreas/Ruth: All in all there is less diversity among the universities in Germany compared to the English speaking world. To give the big picture, we differentiate between the so called ‘full universities’ (with the right to award the doctoral degree) and the ‘Universities of Applied Science’ which are more practice-oriented.
Cindy: How do Career Services and career advisors fit within the university structure in Germany? For example, are they independent units, or part of a bigger department such as Student Services or Support Services? How are they funded?
Andreas/Ruth: The way Career Services are placed within the institutions differs from university to university. Some are linked to the central administration, others are part of ‘Student Services’, some are attached to the ‘Rectorate’, others are central units. Most of them are mainly funded by the central budget of the university and in addition raise some money from third parties (companies, foundations, etc.).
Cindy: How many staff do you have working at your respective Career Services?
Andreas: Usually Career Services in Germany are quite small related to the numbers of staff. For example, in my Career Service at MünsterUniversity we are two full-time staff, one half-time and two student assistants.
Ruth: In Duisburg-Essen we have two full-time and two half-time (permanent) positions, three half-time (temporary work) employees and three student assistants. Some of them are concerned with alumni affairs.
Andreas: Besides Career Services our universities provide study and academic advising, psychological aid, financial aid and similar services. But there is much less counselling staff than, for example, in institutions of Higher Education in Australia or the US.
Ruth: In addition to the central Career Services Centres, a number of universities established some job preparation programs on faculty level.
Cindy: Are Career Services similar across all universities or do some choose different ways to operate their Services?
Andreas: In general they are not completely different. But they may stress different aspects, because due to our limited staff we have to take into consideration what is needed most in our respective institutions. For example, some put a stress on internships, others specialise in soft skill workshops or employer relations.
Ruth: Sometimes it depends on the regional situation, eg. including Career Services for alumni or entrepreneurships.
Cindy: What types of facilities are provided for students? Do most Services have web-based resources as well as face-to-face counselling?
Andreas: We offer different types of service. We deliver web-based resources as well as one-to-one-counselling. But we try to cover as much demand as possible by running group activities, since our team is too small to offer individual service to all our 40,000 students.
Ruth: We are more focused on face-to-face services by now, especially concerning internships, but in future we will offer more courses and classes for students in the general studies of our bachelor and master programs.
Cindy: Do you conduct Career Fairs like we do in Australia?
Andreas: Yes, we offer Career Fairs. We are cooperating with a Fair provider. We don’t want to spend too much time organising these Fairs – so we advertise the Fairs, we are represented at the Fairs and offer workshops to prepare students in advance to enable them to make the most out of visiting such events. That ‘division of labour’ has proved to be most efficient for the Fair provider, the students and the Career Service team.
Ruth: No, we don’t!
Cindy: What services do you offer to employers? How can an employer in Germany use your Career Service to best contact students?
Andreas: Employers have different options to contact our students effectively. On our website they can post vacant jobs and internships. Furthermore, employers from the ‘Münsterland’ region who regularly offer internships can post a permanent company profile on our website. Since most employers want to recruit students and graduates from specific fields of study, we also provide an online database listing contacts in each department. Besides our web-based resources, we offer various activities in cooperation with employers, eg. field trips, Fairs, lectures, workshops or campus interviews.
Ruth: Mainly we provide lectures and workshops, and we run a database with national and international employers offering internships and jobs.
Cindy: How many students tend to make use of the services that you provide?
Andreas: According to our scores, we reach out to approximately 5000 students each and every year, may it be in workshops, lectures or personal counselling. We have realised that participation of both the high-performance students and those with personal and study problems is disproportionately high in our programs compared to the ‘average student’.
Ruth: Roundabout 4000 students make use of the Career Services in Duisburg and Essen.
Cindy: What activities or promotions do you put on to encourage students to use your services?
Andreas: We advertise our services on our web page, we distribute 8000 printed workshop catalogues to students and faculty every semester and we personally present our services during the freshers’ weeks, and in introductory lectures and courses within the regular study programs.
Ruth: So do we!
Cindy: How do you measure the success of the services you provide? Are you required to provide ‘accountability’ measures to the university?
Andreas: As mentioned, we score the number of our participants. But above that the feedback of our students comes up to us more incidentally. But we try to proof the effect of our activities more systematically in times to come. We intend to ask participants what effect their involvement in our program had on their biographical development and try to make the results measurable (eg. did you find an internship with the help of the Career Service, etc.).
Ruth: Yes, we are required to do it! So we score the number of the participants in our seminars and the number of the students and alumni in our advising hours. Because we often arrange the internships for the students, the advisors know them and there is normally a direct feedback like a written report.
Cindy: Do you do any work within the faculties or departments of your universities so that lecturers and others promote career development during classes?
Andreas/Ruth: As we mentioned before, we present our services during the freshers’ weeks, and in introductory lectures and courses within the regular study programs.
Cindy: Is there any kind of ‘outcomes’ research done at German universities to assess what graduates do after graduation? If so, who does this research and what does it show.
Andreas: German universities are just about to start that kind of research work systematically. At MünsterUniversity the Career Service is intensively involved in that work. The Career Service runs a working group with representatives of different departments. Together we want to conduct exemplary graduate surveys, which could set certain standards in this field for future research in our university and beyond.
Ruth: It’s almost the same situation in the University of Duisburg-Essen. The Career Services Centre is responsible for the development of a graduate survey in the merged university.
Cindy: Ruth and Andreas, it certainly has been a pleasure meeting you both and thank you once again for your time today; I’m sure GCA’s Grapevine readers will have been fascinated with the workings of the University of Münster’s and University of Duisburg-Essen’s CAS.
Ruth/Andreas: Thank you too Cindy. We look forward to meeting you again at the next NACE conference or, perhaps, the next time you’re in Germany.
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