What is the course about?
Are you an international student or graduate planning to embark on a career in Germany? That’s great! Germany is among the most attractive destinations for international young professionals. An abundance of opportunities awaits a well-prepared candidate, and ceasing yours is much easier if you know the ins and outs of the German job market and work culture.
This MOOC enhances some key skills that you will need for a successful transition from studies to employment. In the seven-week course, you will learn about the German job market, career identities and strategies, job application skills, workplace competences and the psychology of employability. You will also create your personal career development plan to give you immediate guidance for your next steps.
Ready to change your backpack into a briefcase? Enrol on our employability skills MOOC today!
Who should take this course?
The primary audience of this course is international postgraduate level students of engineering or business, but all students may benefit from the learning.
What do I need to know and what will I learn?
No prior knowledge is required.
After completing the MOOC, you will be familiar with many crucial employability skills in particular in the German context. Thus, you will be more prepared when applying for jobs and able to turn a job opportunity into career success in Germany.
Course Structure
Chapter 1 - Introduction. In the first chapter, you will meet the instructors, gain an overview of the course. You will also learn what employability means and how higher education develops it. After the first week, we will also offer a free webinar about getting your career started as a foreign graduate in Germany.
Chapter 2 - Career identity. Your career identity means the understanding of self on the labour market. This is determined by various factors such as your competences, motivations and values. In this chapter, you will learn how understanding and reflecting such factors can form a coherent career identity and help you toward greater self-confidence.
Chapter 3 - Job application skills. This chapter will give you an overview of the German job market and a variety of skills in identifying job opportunities, writing your application documents and carrying out an effective job application process. You will also gain free CV and cover letter templates in English and German.
Chapter 4 - Workplace Analysis. Daily work within an organisation is different in every country. The contents of this chapter guide you in analysing the structures and interpersonal aspects of your workplace in order to make integration easier and improve your performance early on.
Chapter 5 - Psychology of Employability. Employability is often linked to the psychology of self. How well you tackle workplace challenges and develop professionally significantly depends on your attitudes, efficacy beliefs and self-confidence. This chapter will discuss the meaning of these concepts to your personal employability.
Chapter 6 - Career development project. The course also involves a career development project assignment. If you sign up for the certificate track, completing the assignment is a passing criterion; otherwise completing it is voluntary but useful. Chapter 6 will focus on supporting the project by providing advice and answering learner questions.
Chapter 7 - Evaluation and goodbye. Our course is now over and it is time to look back at how we did. At this point, your feedback would be very much appreciated and helpful in improving the course. The certificate track students will receive a personal review appointment by one of the team members at this point.
Course instructors
Antti Kapanen
Thanks for viewing my profile on iversity! My name is Antti Kapanen. A Finnish native, I have lived in Berlin for well over 10 years now.
Since 2007, I have managed and developed a postgraduate degree programme, the Master of Business Administration and Engineering, at the HTW Berlin. The programme is an opportunity mainly for engineers to gain an industrial management degree with interesting specialisations in automotive management, interdisciplinary management and lean management.
Our programme is taught in English and has a very international enrolment. So far, we have had students from close to 50 countries all over the world! The time has been a great opportunity for me to learn about other cultures - and to think long days about how to offer the most useful education possible to such a diverse audience.
In order to effectively help our students and graduates succeed, I have made employability into the centrepoint of my recent research work. In the Employability Skills MOOC, which is available since 2015 and continues to develop, you will gain an introduction into several areas of skills and knowledge you will benefit of when starting your career in Germany - or elsewhere.
