The MINT Girls Camp stands for promotion in the fields of maths, computer science, natural sciences and technology. Among other things, schoolgirls in Hesse learn to overcome their fear of contact with traditional male professions.
Giessen. Traditional gender roles on the labour market are only changing slowly. Ruth Biehl-Franze, training officer at Stadtwerke Gießen (SWG), is well aware of this: "Girls are still more likely to become office administrators or nursery nurses, while boys are much more likely to repair machines or programme computers."
This is precisely where initiatives such as the MINT Girls Camp come in. Organised by Sportjugend Hessen im Landessportbund Hessen and the company Provadis - Partner für Bildung und Beratung GmbH - 20 girls aged between 14 and 17 from all over Hesse can spend a week looking behind the scenes of careers in mathematics, IT, science and technology, or STEM for short. There are also sports activities and a joint evening programme. The aim of the initiative, which has been funded since 2011 by the state of Hesse, the European Social Fund and the Hesse Regional Directorate of the Federal Employment Agency, is to significantly weaken the still clear division between traditional male and female professions.
Breaking down fears of contact
This year's MINT Girls Camp took place from 10 to 14 July. It kicked off at the youth hostel in Wetzlar, where the young women stayed during the Girls Camp. After the welcome on Monday at Stadtwerke Gießen, the girls received tips on choosing a career from two representatives of the employment agency. They then went to the "Metal Experience", where the young women were able to get creative themselves and produce their own workpieces using various metal tools. On the other practical days, the girls visited the Chemikum and Provadis in Marburg as well as the Bender company in Grünberg.
As part of the camp, the schoolgirls are given the opportunity to gain their first practical experience in the respective training occupations. "This helps them to overcome their fear of so-called typical male professions," explains Ruth Biehl-Franze.
Counteracting the shortage of skilled workers
At the end of the camp on Friday, 14 July, the participants gathered once again at the Stadtwerke training centre, where they had time to share their experiences of the past week. Questions about job applications and training were once again put to a representative of the employment agency and the SWG trainees.
In the afternoon, Matthias Funk, Technical Director of SWG, welcomed the girls and their parents to the main building of Stadtwerke Gießen. The young women then presented their experiences and the workpieces they had made to their parents and representatives of the participating companies.
"In times when there is a looming shortage of skilled workers, we need to increasingly support the many bright young minds in order to open up career prospects for them in the typical STEM professions," emphasised Matthias Funk. There is already a shortage of labour in Germany in professions with a technical, mathematical or scientific background as never before. And experts expect this problem to become even more acute in the coming years. "This is precisely why it is so important to encourage young women not to make their career choices dependent on conventional role clichés. This is exactly what the MINT Girls Camp does," concludes the Technical Director of SWG.