The FH Salzburg promotes equal participation and equal opportunities in all diversity dimensions. This also includes the area of women's advancement. In October, a mentoring programme for female students was launched for the first time with the aim of promoting female careers and preparing female students for a successful career.
Sharing knowledge, providing support, promoting talents. Mentoring has many positive aspects. At the FH Salzburg, female students are also supported in gaining clarity about their own career paths and benefiting from a dedicated network. Within the framework of the new mentoring programme, FH female students are networked with mentors - successful female graduates and women from the FH corporate environment.
Personal mentoring for career and personality development
The programme is aimed at female students who are in the final year of their Bachelor's or Master's degree. The core of the programme is a personal 1:1 mentoring between a female student and a female mentor. In regular meetings during the 9-month tandem phase, they can work on topics related to career and personal development and benefit from the mentors' know-how through exchange.
For FH Rector and Managing Director Dominik Engel, the initiative is another contribution towards equal opportunities:
"Promoting women is an important step on the way to a fairer and more inclusive society. I am therefore very pleased that we can offer this programme to our female students. The basis for the success of this initiative is dedicated female mentors who offer their valuable time, knowledge and experience."
Networking, exchanging and learning from each other
A total of 21 mentoring pairs - 21 students and 21 female mentors - have been formed in the current academic year. On 19 October, the "kick-off" for the mentoring programme took place at the Urstein Campus.
A highlight of the evening was the keynote by Kosima Kovar, founder of the APP "Ada Growth - the mentor in your pocket" on the topic "Why the advancement of women is still necessary". She told of her own experiences as a female founder, reported that AI also disadvantages women in some cases and how the Ada APP supports women in their personal development. The FH Salzburg provides the Ada app free of charge to female students in the mentoring programme for a period of 6 months.
Mentor Ursula Spannberger describes her motivation to support the programme as follows: "I have been active in women's politics in many projects since my student days. I am happy to pass on my knowledge and experience. Furthermore, I am interested in the exchange with young women, their views, their living conditions, their future plans, expectations, hopes, worries and fears."
Representing the 21 female students, Viktoria Steininger explains her expectations: "For me, the mentoring programme is an opportunity for personal development and for building a professional network. I have a lot of ideas about what I want to do after graduation, but I don't know what direction to take. I therefore want to learn from my mentor's experience, be able to define my own goals more clearly and receive advice on how to start my career."
Career Services for students: The Career Center der FH Salzburg Career Center at FH Salzburg prepares students for their entry into the professional world with workshops, coaching, individual CV checks and career advice. In addition, there is a digital job platform with many job advertisements and annual job and career fairs such as "Contacta".
