In January 2007 the project Interreg IIIA – Fachkräfte für die Wirtschaft had run for a year. At the moment the project end is fixed for December 2007.
Thus, the project had proceeded from analysing the promoting and hindering conditions to direct contact with the participating companies. In 2007, the project activities have concentrated on custom-made consulting services for the participating companies in the Carinthian region, while it has been a continuous activity to raise public awareness for the topic.
WiTEC Austria is the coordinator of the project and the project partners include Micro Electronic Cluster, Association of the Austrian Industry from Carinthia and Automotive Cluster from Slovenia. The voluminous project with a budget of 300.000 Euro started in January 2006.
Current statistics show that women are highly underrepresented in science, engineering and technology (SET), especially in the industrial sector. Taking into account the future requirements of SET, the need for a highly qualified workforce, the global economic and demographic development, companies cannot afford to neglect women as potential researchers, developers and engineers any more. The correlation between gender diversity and productivity and profit has been proven by international studies. Therefore, it is of crucial importance to motivate women to choose studies and jobs in SET and to motivate companies to implement measures and conditions to promote women in the field of SET. This is why a group of leading industrial partners and industry service providers in Austria have developed the project. To achieve these requirements and to raise public awareness, there were many initiatives in Austria and whole Europe within the last year. The importance of this topic is becoming clearer and clearer.

• The main aims of the project are analysing the current situation of women in SET in Carinthia and Slovenia as well as set measures to strengthen the position of women in SET as well as the competitiveness of companies in these regions. Furthermore, it will be an ongoing activity to raise public awareness of the upcoming lack of qualified technical workforce and the potential of women.

In order to achieve the main project aims, the following issues were addressed:

• Creating a corporate identity to create a uniformly image, when presenting the project in the public. This should increase the recognition factor of the project and raise public awareness of the topic.
• Creating a project folder.
• Contacting companies in the field of SET to introduce the project and maybe gain them to participate in the project.
• Preparation of the status-quo survey (preparation of a questionnaire and interview guidelines, compilation of the range of consultation services).
• Interviews with personnel managers of the network companies in Carinthia to determine the status-quo.
• Review of the interview outcome.
• Organisation of workshops (company and public levels) to raise awareness for the topic “Women in SET”
• Seminars for personnel managers (especially from the network companies) on issues like gender diversity, developing and promoting women in SET.
• Developing strategies on how to raise the rate of female technicians together with companies
• Developing a consultant pool consisting of external experts to support companies to work against the shortage of skilled workers and to increase the number of women in SET. It is a very good opportunity for the companies to make some changes and furthermore, strengthen their market position through such activities.
• Different press releases about the project itself and related topics
• Negotiations with possible future WiTEC Slovenia representations

The project leader is WiTEC Österreich and the following partners participate in this project:

• IV – Industriellenvereinigung Kärnten
• me²c – Microelectronic Cluster
• ACS – Automotive Cluster of Slovenia

Links:
- Projectbooklet Interreg IIIA Fachkräfte für die Wirtschaft (German)
- Projectfolder Interreg IIIA Fachkräfte für die Wirtschaft (German/English)

If you are interested in participating in the project or if you would like to get more information about the project, please contact:
 
WiTEC Austria Technikon Forschungsgesellschaft mbH
Burgplatz 3a A-9500 Villach
Contact person: Denise Molzbichler
Tel: +43 4242 23355-82
Fax: +43 4242 23355-77
Email: witec@technikon.at



The project is co-financed by the European Union, the federal state of Austria and the Government of Carinthia.