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Talent scouting for young people from families without academic experience

Submitted by: Ramona Liedtke, Rectorate Staff Unit Integration Team - Human Resources, Gender and Diversity Management (IGaD)

- ongoing

Talent scouting for young people from families without academic experience

Statistics show that in Germany, about three-third of all students at colleges and universities come from families with academic experience, which means it is often not talents and abilities that determine the educational path, but family backgrounds. In order to lead to more educational justice and equal opportunities, the Ministry for Innovation, Science and Research of the German federal state North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) established the talent scouting programme in 2011. By 2020, it had enrolled 17 NRW colleges and universities, including RWTH Aachen University and FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences.

Since 2017, the two Aachen universities have jointly participated in the project and worked with young people in the Aachen region (Aachen city region, Dueren, Heinsberg and Euskirchen). Talent scouts complement the services offered by the student advisory services of both universities with a low-threshold, individual, long-term approach that always takes into account the context of the young person's life and evaluates achievements in this context. Cooperating with vocational colleges, comprehensive schools and grammar schools as well as a further education college, the scouts identify gifted pupils and support them individually in the transition from school to work/study. 

The focus is on the talent with their individual wishes, interests and dreams. The scout, as a personal companion, helps to recognise and promote personal strengths, to discover hidden talents and to give courage by developing visions for the professional future, pointing out paths and different perspectives, creating helpful networks and obtaining important information. The talent thus is supported to actively shape their own future independently, regardless of their background or type of school by developing confidence in their own abilities so that they can make full use of their own potential, talk about the choice of advanced courses, career choices and fears for the future, and get advice on what financing options are available for their own plans. 

The talent scouting of the two Aachen universities is being evaluated by means of internal accompanying research by the Chair of Gender and Diversity in Engineering (GDI) at RWTH Aachen University and has an advisory inter-university project commission.

COMPASS PERSPECTIVE – in what way(s) was the measure C O M P A S S?

C - because it is creative in that it challenges the status quo of young people from non-academic backgrounds and brings a qualitative lift to each young person who participates.

O - because it is open in that it is transparent who the programme is for and that it is highly participatory for the talents.
S - because the measures are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.
S - because the programme is systemic and takes the (life) context of the young personas into account.

ACTORS AND STAKEHOLDERS

  • Talents/young people from families without academic experience 
  • Talent scouts from RWTH Aachen University and FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences
  • Inter-university project commission 
  • Professorship/Chair Gender and Diversity in Engineering (GDI) at RWTH Aachen University
  • Ministry for Innovation, Science and Research of the German federal state North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW)

AUTHOR’S REFLECTIONS

What would you do the same/differently another time?
What have you learnt? Do you see relevance for this in other contexts?

In 2021, we are awaiting results from the evaluation of the last project period. 
However, the programme is popular and has grown in NRW and elsewhere: 70 talent scouts work in about 400 vocational colleges, comprehensive schools and grammar schools in NRW, which means they are represented at every third public secondary school. Additionally, the University of Innsbruck, Austria, has established talent scouting based on the NRW model.
The programme is highly relevant a) to each talent(ed young person) involved, and b) overall successfully promotes equal opportunities by promoting equal education.