2012|13 Annual Report Fraunhofer IGB

36 Girls’ Day at the Fraunhofer campus in Stuttgart In Germany we currently have the best educated cohort of young women of all times, with girls making up 55.2 per- cent of high-school graduates alone. Despite this, girls still tend to opt disproportionately in favor of typical female jobs or courses when choosing an apprenticeship or higher stud- ies. Girls’ Day – a nationwide event initiated by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) – at the Fraunhofer campus in Stuttgart gives young women an insight into the Fraunhofer Institutes and the careers available in engi- neering, IT and the natural sciences. The researchers open the doors to laboratories and test areas, ofﬁces and workshops, where they use practical examples to demonstrate how inter- esting their work is. For girls, this is a good chance to ﬁnd out more about what scientists do through talking to the scien- tists in real life, on a one-to-one basis. 2012 saw once again well over 100 interested participants in Stuttgart, some of whom visited the “Magic liquids and fascinating surfaces” and “Making DNA visible” information stations at the Fraunhofer IGB. The next Girls’ Day will take place on April 25, 2013. www.stuttgart.fraunhofer.de/girls-day BOGY – vocational and academic career orientation at academic high schools 16 high-school students completed their “BOGY” internships at the Fraunhofer IGB in 2012. They gained insights into the work of scientists and graduate students in different disci- plines (engineers, biologists, chemists and physicists) as well as ﬁnding out about typical “recognized” (i.e. requiring formal training) vocational occupations in a research institute, such as technical assistant or laboratory technician. The students were introduced to various working groups in the respective departments and their laboratories, assisted on real projects, became acquainted with methods for identifying particular substances and helped out with the planning and performing of experiments as well as the documentation of the test re- sults. The internship gives the youngsters a detailed picture of the work that goes on in a research institute and helps them to make better-informed career choices. www.stuttgart.fraunhofer.de/schuelerpraktika Open day for university students In February 2013, 94 science and engineering students from various universities and universities of applied sciences visited the Fraunhofer campus in Stuttgart. Through presentations, interviews and tours they had the chance to ﬁnd out about PROMOTING YOUNG TALENTS – EXHIBITIONS The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is keen to make early contact with the researchers of tomorrow and give them exciting insights into research opportunities. Thus the Fraunhofer IGB is active in both promoting young talents and getting young people interested in research and technology. We do this through events at the Fraunhofer campus in Stuttgart, as well as exhibits at various exhibitions. HIGHLIGHTS 2012 1 1

2012|13 Annual Report Fraunhofer IGB

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