Press release: Integrated Welcome Centre for Göttingen Campus and region

Nr. 106/2016 - 31.05.2016

Companies sponsor project – wide-ranging support for scientists, scholars, trained professionals and executives

(pug) International scientists, scholars, trained professionals and executives who want to work in the southern region of Lower Saxony will be receiving even more wide-ranging support in future. The objective is not only to attract them, but to keep them here. Together with the SüdniedersachsenStiftung (“Southern Lower Saxony Foundation”) and the alliance for skilled personnel (“Fachkräftebündnis” of southern Lower Saxony), the University of Göttingen is planning to set up an integrated Welcome Centre for the Göttingen Campus and southern Lower Saxony. The Centre is one of the lead projects nested in the South Lower Saxony programme. Companies like Otto Bock HealthCare, KWS Saat SE and Sartorius AG — all associated partners of the Göttingen Campus — are sponsoring a project staff member for the Welcome Centre preparations, who has already started work at the University.

The Welcome Centre integrates the existing services: those offered by the Welcome Centre of the University for Academics alongside those of the geniusgöttingen project for businesses offered by the SüdniedersachsenStiftung. One of the primary missions is to place greater emphasis on digitalisation. For this purpose, the new project post will also be raising additional third-party funds. In future, persons looking to work in Göttingen or South Lower Saxony should be able to go to a jointly-run, multilingual digital platform to get a quick overview of all the welcome packages on offer for support upon their arrival. This portal will also provide information packages designed to effectively facilitate integration for the various target groups. These packages are combined with regional marketing that showcases the attractiveness of the region. Moreover, the intention is to also provide a search forum for jobs, dual career offers, work placement and internship opportunities.

An online service will offer flexible, timely and effective advisory services to both international scientists, scholars, trained professionals and executives as well as to the institutions of higher education and companies who employ them. An app for mobile end devices is in the works as well. Above and beyond this, the intensive personal support provided will continue, whilst the range of services offered and number of target groups will likewise be extended within the project.

"International scientists, scholars, trained professionals and executives in business will frequently choose not to relocate to Göttingen or this region, unless their partner can find a suitable job here,“ notes Professor Hiltraud Casper-Hehne, Vice President for International Affairs at Göttingen University and project initiator. Due to better interlinked networks across all stakeholders, better offers can now be generated faster in future.

"We don’t merely want to give stronger support to the Göttingen Campus; we also aim to intensify our efforts to approach small- and medium-sized businesses in the South Lower Saxony region to help them meet their demand for trained professionals on the appropriate scale," adds Klaus Hoffmann, Chairman of the SüdniedersachsenStiftung. "They often do not have the same opportunities that large corporations do to draw international attention to themselves."
"An increasing number of companies are also looking to recruit trained professionals from around the world. Local businesses seek qualified employees, whilst many international students at Göttingen University would like to take advantage of career opportunities in Germany, too," Professor Casper-Hehne explains. "In other words, both small- and medium-sized firms benefit from the professional support within the recruiting and integration process. In turn, the international students at the University profit from the job placement functions."

Alongside the Fachkräftebündnis and SüdniedersachsenStiftung, other stakeholders in the Welcome Centre project include current users of the university-based Welcome Centre, the University Medical Centre Göttingen (UMG) and the German Primate Centre. The University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hildesheim/Holzminden/Göttingen (HAWK) and the PFH Private University of Applied Sciences Göttingen also intend to participate. The Max Planck Institutes and the German Aerospace Centre are currently reviewing a stakeholdership.

Contact:
Professor Hiltraud Casper-Hehne
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Vice President for International Affairs
Wilhelmsplatz 1, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Phone +49 (0)551 39- 12184
Email: hiltraud.casper-hehne@zvw.uni-goettingen.de
Web: www.uni-goettingen.de/en/110984.html