Digital-Technical Guidance for Schools

Developing career guidance concepts for STEM lessons to attract young people to digital-technical professions in Southern Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein

The economic development of Southern Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein is highly dependent on overcoming the shortage of skilled workers, which particularly affects labour markets outside the metropolitan areas. The STEPS. project contributes to this by giving young people prospects for a future career in digital-technical fields while they are still at school.

Project partners at the University of Southern Denmark (Odense), the European University of Flensburg, and the IPN Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education in Kiel develop innovative approaches for career guidance embedded directly in STEM lessons. Teaching units are designed to combine labour market perspectives with technical content, enabling integration into regular lessons and increasing acceptance among teachers.

Concepts are developed in close consultation with teachers and regional companies through workshops and a shared online platform. During a pilot phase, the concepts are trialled with school classes and refined as needed. All materials are made freely available to teachers in both Germany and Denmark via dedicated online platforms.

In this way, STEPS. enables early career guidance from primary school through to graduation, actively helping to counteract the shortage of skilled workers in the region.