CarLa
The Osnabrück Career Path to a Professorship at a University of Applied Sciences (UAS)
THE CARLA PROJECT
CarLa, short for “Career Lab Osnabrück”, is a project designed to increase the number of applications for professor positions at Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS). One key goal is to attract and qualify applicants. A number of targeted measures support those interested in the career path to a UAS professorship. To this end, we support both so-called high potentials who already fulfill the formal criteria for a UAS professorship, as well as “talents” who are on their way to eligibility.
A core aspect of this project is to experimentally develop, pilot, and publicise the innovative model of an “Osnabrück Career Path” towards a professorship at a UAS. Potential applicants will be individually guided on their career path to a UAS professorship. Our support takes into account future applicants’ own strengths, plans, and preferences, as well as their current career and life stage. This opens up needs-based professional development providing flexible support to potential candidates – be it doctoral programs, research, teaching experience, and/or professional experience. At the end stands a person formally qualified for a UAS professorship.
THE OSNABRÜCK CAREER PATH TO A UAS PROFESSORSHIP
One unique component of CarLa is its long-term approach and attention to individual life phases and career plans. Combining needs-based professional development with different stages of family life must become a top priority to pave the way specifically for women to embark on a UAS professorship. Doing so will allow individual career and life planning, and demonstrate Osnabrück UAS’ commitment to being a family friendly and attractive employer.
The measures developed in CarLa are guided by a strategic set of skills that Osnabrück UAS requires from future professors: interdisciplinarity, digitalization, internationalization, sustainability, as well as gender and diversity awareness.
STEPS TO IMPLEMENT THESE GOALS
The goal of the first sub-project is to publicise a UAS professorship as possible career path for those already formally qualified. Osnabrück UAS is further marketed as an attractive employer. Pursuing this goal entails bringing together various organizational units – such as the Communications Department, the Center for International Mobility, and the Equal Opportunity Office (including Family Services), as well as University Advancement – in an employer-branding project that is comprehensively communicated and embraced. An additional focus is on reaching out to international talents and high potentials.
To increase the number of applications for professor positions by 2030, we will actively identify and address talents and high potentials, with a specific focus on diversity and an explicit effort to support women on their career path.
The second part of the CarLa project will be the subsequent monitoring of skills and qualifications of talents who do not yet fulfill all formal criteria for a UAS professorship. During the individual consulting process, talents will be offered tailored elements of professional development to prepare them for a UAS professorship. These professional development activities cover the entire scope of a UAS professorship, from PhD studies (and PhD positions) over work and teaching experience, to applied research experience. Thematically suitable projects can be conducted within the scope of our Talent Academies.
The third sub-project serves to develop and establish three Talent Academies – “Talents for Green Transformation,” “Health & Living,” and “Smart Factory & Products”. By collaborating with partners from the private sector, academia, and the public at large – both locally and globally – these talent academies are to become a space for the lively exchange of ideas, for knowledge transfer, and for the collaborative support and development of early career researchers. The Talent Academy “Farming & Food” cooperates in particular with the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT.
CONTACT
Has the project sparked your interest? If you are interested in an informal chat or would like more information, please register in our database of interested parties or contact us directly by e-mail at carla@hs-osnabrueck.de. Alternatively, feel free to contact our colleagues directly in their various working groups or at their respective faculties.
The Team
Project Management
Project Assistance
Increasing the Visibility and Attractiveness of the University
Collaboration Platform
Management of Lectureships
Welcome Center & International Researchers and Applicants
Communication Management & Employer Branding
Active Talent Scouting, Qualification Monitoring, and Diversity Management
Talent Scouting & Recruiting
Qualification Monitoring
Talents for Green Transformation Talent Academy
Academic Management
Vice Management
Coordination & Networking
Health & Living Talent Academy
Academic Management
Vice Management
Coordination
Smart Factory & Products Talent Academy
Academic Management
Vice Management
Coordination & Networking
Project Background
The CarLa Project will run until March 2027 on the basis of a grant awarded by the “FH-Personal” program, jointly funded by Germany’s federal and state governments. This program is designed to foster new impetus and open up the process of recruiting and developing future tenured staff at universities of applied sciences.
In addition to the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences, over 90 other UAS have begun to create pathways for expanding the opportunities to recruit and develop future UAS professors. More information about the “FH-Personal” program co-financed by the federal and state governments is available (in German) here: www.fh-personal.de
