The Women & Career Coordination Centre was set up in 2004 as a project of the Saarpfalz District Women's Office with funding from the EU. On Sunday, 21 April, the anniversary will be celebrated at the training centre of the Chamber of Labour as part of a "career breakfast" on the topic of "happiness". The patron of the anniversary event will be Dr Magnus Jung, Minister for Social Affairs, Women, Family and Health.
The idea of applying for a project to provide professional support for women came to women's representative Birgit Rudolf in the course of her counselling work: after an EU-funded project for the professional reintegration of women from the commercial sector (mid to late 1990s) came to an end, numerous women complained that there were too few offers and hardly any support for women after the family phase. In particular, there was a lack of industry-independent or cross-industry programmes in which women could deal with their previous family role with regard to a desired career, but also learn and benefit from a wide variety of viewpoints, perspectives and experiences. So the search for suitable programmes began, and the women's representative soon came across a mentoring project in Vienna. She expanded her search for similar opportunities for women to exchange ideas, learn in seminars, raise their own profile and network. The idea of establishing such a project in the Saarpfalz district gradually took shape - but there was a lack of funding. Although mentors mostly work on a voluntary basis, the organisation and implementation of the seminars etc. required the recruitment and financing of the necessary staff. At a future workshop in 2001, around 20 women from a wide variety of professional and family backgrounds developed proposals for a positive future in their Saarpfalz-Kreis region. Together, they also planned a mentoring programme embedded in a "house" of counselling, education and culture.
Finally, at the beginning of 2003, the first co-operation with the then Equal Opportunities Officer of the Employment Agency in Neunkirchen resulted in an application for a small project. This was initially to consist of a three-month coaching programme and a ten-month mentoring process, financed by funds from the Employment Agency and from European Union subsidies. Doris Gaa, Managing Director of Wirtschaftsförderungsgesellschaft Saarpfalz, was also recruited as an initial co-operation partner. The new project was launched on 1 March 2004 with a "career breakfast", at which the renowned management trainer and journalist Sabine Asgodom was a guest speaker. She initiated the first mentoring project in Germany. So what could be more natural than to celebrate the anniversary of this successful project 20 years later with a successful author and speaker as part of the "Career Breakfast"?
To date, around 3000 women have taken advantage of advice from the coordination centre. 21 mentoring processes and over 40 coaching programmes have been carried out. Over the years, other services have been added that have arisen from the changing labour market and the needs of women: IT training courses, skills analyses, further training seminars and also low-threshold language courses, as the proportion of female counselling clients with a history of migration was constantly growing. With the support of the coordination centre, numerous participants were finally able to return to work, become self-employed or reorient themselves professionally. Due to the consistently positive results, the Saarland Ministry of Economic Affairs decided in 2018 to expand the successful counselling service. In order to increase the still very low employment rate of women in Saarland, the state programme "Women in Work" was launched and Women & Career advice centres were established in each district, which function along the lines of the Homburg coordination centre. The link between the centres is the Women in Employment Network Centre (FiB), which was initiated by the Ministry of Economic Affairs in 2017. The aim of all these efforts is to integrate the potential of the many women, some of whom are well educated, into the Saarland labour market and to pave the way for women - who wish to do so - to return to work. "The successful statistics of the team led by Women's Representative Birgit Rudolf show impressively how continuously work is being done to support women with suitable solutions in their respective life situations. Behind these figures are people whose concerns are being addressed with empathy and commitment," said District Administrator Dr Theophil Gallo, praising the positive development in recent years.
To mark the anniversary event, Maike van den Boom will give a talk entitled "No Risk, no Luck" after the traditional breakfast buffet. The speaker is regularly featured as an expert in German-language media on the topics of happiness, Scandinavia and the future of work and is passionate about bringing Nordic values such as trust, responsibility, freedom and mutual support into the world of work. Various information stands on professional topics and a cake buffet will round off the career breakfast on Sunday, 21 April, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Chamber of Labour's education centre. Tickets are available in advance for 25 euros from the Saarpfalz District Women's Office on (06841) 104-7138, e-mail: [email protected]. The ticket price at the box office is 30 euros.