Welcome to the Career Companion project for international students with and without a refugee background.

We are delighted that you want to take the first step towards a successful professional future. Our digital career companion will help you to reflect on your skills and talents, define your professional goals and show you the necessary steps to achieve these goals.

The project is explicitly aimed at international students at the end of their studies who are aiming for a professional future in Germany after successfully completing their studies. Therefore, the elements of the Career Companion focus on integration, language acquisition, administrative and cultural understanding, hard and soft skills in the German labor market.

The Career Companion will support you with various offers and centralized information services.

"How to Career in Germany" - our Moodle-supported course offers two semesters of support via the following four pillars:

• Orientation in Germany: Topics such as the peculiarities of German administration and the German labor market are explained, and basic questions about visas and residence rights are covered.
• Career planning and qualification: How do I reflect on my strengths and weaknesses? How important are German language skills and how do I acquire them? Which soft skills should I acquire?
• Application process and job entry: How do I find a suitable job? What should good application documents look like, and how does an interview work in Germany?
• Job-related networking: Networks are now more important than ever for career advancement. The hidden job market (jobs that are not publicly advertised but are obtained through recommendations) is only accessible with active networking. Awareness of this and professional networking techniques are taught in this module.

The project supports different types and speeds of learning. When you register, we will send you to a learning cycle that we have prepared for you and will refer you to the next relevant topic area every 14 days. We will then guide you through all subject areas over a total of 52 weeks.

However, you will have full access to all relevant subtopics right from the start. So, if you only find parts of it relevant, you can select these specifically.

The peculiarities of the German labor market in relation to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are a central component of a sub-project that the Technical University of Dortmund is carrying out in cooperation with the Ruhr University Bochum. A digital exchange format will be used to promote greater awareness of the challenges for both sides between international students and SME representatives.

The SMEs are given the opportunity to introduce themselves to an interested audience of potential employees with little effort on their part, and the students gain an initial insight into the world of work away from the big players in their specialist sector.

“Your Future in NRW” will enter the working phase with the kick-off event on May 7, 2024 at the International Meeting Center (IBZ). You will receive further information on when the first online panel will take place here and via the usual news channels.

The start of the Career Companion for all international students is planned for the winter semester 2024/25.

Registration for participation in the program will take place here.