“Who am I and what can I do?” Doreen Fiedler, coordinator for young people and mentors at JOBLINGE in Leipzig, works with participants to find answers to these questions.
She talks about what career guidance needs to achieve and how young people can find their place in the “big puzzle of life”.
The interview is being published to mark the tenth anniversary of JOBLINGE gAG Leipzig this year.
What is important for young people to find the right career for them?
Young people need to find out what their strengths are, what inspires them and what they are passionate about.
At JOBLINGE, we believe in young men and women and support them when they leave their comfort zone to take advantage of career opportunities.
The young people have to invest time and energy in this.
During the internship, they experience what their own hands can do and gain experience.
They make decisions and, in the vast majority of cases, achieve their goal with patience and perseverance.
What hurdles are there on the way to the right training?
Everyone has experienced rejections after job interviews or no feedback on applications – this can be demotivating.
Sometimes you are confronted with prejudices because, for example, CVs show gaps.
Self-doubt, false self-confidence and even psychological impairments often make it impossible for young people to actively take control of their lives.
Too little life experience, imprecise career ideas and sometimes an overestimation of their own abilities can in turn contribute to young people not progressing because their reality does not match the real world of work.
Our task at JOBLINGE is to work out together with the young people: Who am I?
What can I do?
And what do I want to achieve in order to find my place in the big puzzle of life?
Why don’t many young people have a good career orientation when they come to JOBLINGE?
Career guidance is a long-term, multidimensional process.
School, extracurricular contexts and the parental home play an important role in this.
I would like to see more hand-in-hand work and for young people to gain life experience through internships, vacation jobs or voluntary work.
Appreciative conversations to reflect on events, observations and experiences with the young person are particularly helpful.
Becoming aware of their own interests and abilities, gaining experience, having realistic ideas about career options, narrowing down alternatives and making decisions are important skills for young people.
We help them to develop these skills.
What must good career guidance be able to achieve?
Young people find it difficult to make the “right” decision at the moment.
It’s not just about obvious offers for apprenticeships.
Even an alleged need for skilled workers or the opinion of third parties cannot be the sole guide.
Education-related career guidance must ask questions: “Who is the school-based training suitable for?”, “Who would benefit from dual training?”, “What happens if I want to do something else in three years’ time?”
My motivation at JOBLINGE is to find the right questions and answers together with the young people.
