"If it works, the project could become a model for the entire country." Hesse's Minister of Science, Udo Corts, has high hopes for a Furtherdevelopment program that the Giessenin cooperation with the Giessenwill offer

together with University President Prof. Dr. Dietrich Wendler, Matthias Spieler, Managing Director of the GiessenEmployment Agency, and Prof. Dr. Eckhardt Wiederuh, Giessen , aims to provide targeted professional development for unemployed older engineers.

from conventional Professional Developmentprograms in that the unemployed participants are supported in a company from the outset, allowing for the immediate identification of any professional deficiencies. "Each participant receives individual guidance from a university professor and can create their own specific Professional Developmentprogram from the courses offered by the Giessen-Friedberg University of Applied Sciences." In the pilot phase this coming winter semester, 15 to 20 places will initially be available for mechanical and electrical engineers.

The project addresses the discrepancy between the high demand for engineers on the one hand and the high unemployment rate among older engineers on the other. "It gets difficult after 40," summarizes Matthias Spieler. Two-thirds of the 329 engineers registered as unemployed in the Giessen belong to this age group. The employment agency's task is to place unemployed individuals with companies that need engineers and to provide support during the training phase at the companies. The program promises success also because the companies take no risk. They can Professional Development assess their potential new employee

VDI Chairman Wiederuh, whose organization will also be involved in acquiring companies and potential course participants, cites very specific shortcomings, for example in the software sector, that can be addressed at the university of applied sciences: "Someone who has held a management position in a medium-sized company for ten years and then loses their job hasn't dealt with CAD as a manager and therefore needs to catch up with current developments."

Minister Corts, who emphasized that the Giessen-Friedberg University of Applied Sciences has already taken a pioneering role in other areas, such as dual study programs, also pointed to a socio-political aspect of the project. If engineers over 45 are considered past their prime today, then one cannot simply sit idly by but must take action. He will therefore support the pilot project with €56,000 from his ministry's innovation fund.