Femtec - Empower. Connect. Inspire.

Study-related career development for female STEM students

Are you a student of engineering or natural sciences? Are you a big fan of new technology? Do you want an exciting career full of responsibility? Then you’re just the person Femtec is looking for!

You can apply for the next round from October 14 to November 3, 2024. More information will be available at the online info event of the University of Stuttgart on Thursday, October 24, at 5:30 p.m. (registration on the right).
Alternatively, you can also attend the central Femtec info event: Wednesday, October 30, 6 p.m. via Zoom.

Contacts and key skills for female STEM students

The Femtec Network is looking for women like you and wants to offer you support in launching your career. In the Femtec Career-Building Program, you can prepare for your career along with other female students majoring in technical and natural sciences from all over Germany and Switzerland. The program language is English.

STEM stands for the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

You can develop your communications, leadership and management skills, learn how international companies function and advise a company as part of an innovation workshop.

As a Femtec scholarship holder, you can benefit from contacts, internship opportunities both at home and abroad, and the opportunity to begin your career at one of our network partners. We are also happy to give you individual advice about career planning or feedback about your application.

What’s unique about Femtec is the ‘Femtec spirit’ – the energy, the motivation, the ideas which come out of this pool of exciting, interesting and impressive women.

Stefanie Heine, Femtec graduate from the University of Stuttgart, Regional Manager of Lapp Systems GmbH.
  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Air Quality Control, Solid Waste and Waste Water Process Engineering (WASTE)
  • Artificial Intelligence and Data Science
  • Automotive Engineering
  • Autonomous Systems
  • Chemistry
  • Computational Mechanics of Materials and Structures (COMMAS)
  • Computer Science
  • Electromobility
  • Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
  • Energy Technology
  • Engineering Cybernetics
  • Environmental Engineering
  • Geodesy and Geoinformatics Engineering
  • Geomatics Engineering (GEOENGINE)
  • Informatics
  • Information Systems
  • Information Systems/Infonomics
  • Information Technology (INFOTECH)
  • Infrastructure Planning
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Mechanical and Process Engineering
  • Mechatronics
  • Medical Technology
  • Photonic Engineering
  • Physics
  • Process Engineering
  • Renewable Energies
  • Simulation Technology
  • Software Engineering
  • Sustainable Electrical Power Supply
  • Technically Oriented Business Administration
  • Technology Management
  • Transport Engineering
  • Water Resources Engineering and Management (WAREM)

Is your subject not there? Find out more about applying by speaking with the Femtec coordinator at the University of Stuttgart.

A careers program for women?

For a number of years, Femtec GmbH in Berlin has successfully been running the career building program for female STEM students, which runs alongside their studies, together with its partners from the fields of science, business and research. The program is conducted entirely in English.

The University of Stuttgart has been a partner university since 2005, and since then has regularly supported ambitious female students through this program.

Femtec’s corporate partners are actively involved in the Femtec network and look forward to getting to know you. All partners of the Femtec Network know that diversity in science is just as important as it is in business, and want to attract women for specialist and management positions in both spheres.

Femtec participants
Femtec participants
Femtec scholarship holders at a school
Femtec scholarship holders at a school

You can apply if you

  • are a female student at the University of Stuttgart,
  • study mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and information technology, informatics or another engineering or natural sciences subject,
  • have already started a master’s degree,
  • have German language skills at A2 level and English language skills corresponding to B2 level,
  • can demonstrate commitment and a sense of team spirit, and want to take the right steps towards getting a fantastic start in your career as well as taking on some responsibility in business or science at an early stage.

Since both the selection process and the program are currently carried out entirely in English, the relevant language skills are essential in order to apply. With the help of a free language test, you can find out if your active language skills meet the required level.

Applications are open twice a year (generally at the start of each semester). You can apply online at the Femtec GmbH application portal. For this, you require all relevant certificates and proof of practical experience, as well as a current transcript of records in electronic form. Please include any certificates you may have confirming your level of German with your application documents, and upload your application in full in one PDF file.

Femtec scholarship holders at a workshop
Femtec scholarship holders at a workshop

Applicants for the Femtec Career-Building Program are chosen via a two-stage process:

  • Applicants are pre-selected based on their online application.
  • You will then spend a whole day carrying out various exercises (conducted in German) in the assessment center. Here you will be assessed by a number of observers from your university and various partner companies from the Femtec Network. They will make a joint decision whether you have passed. You will be informed about the result no later than the following day, and you can ask to be given more detailed feedback. The assessment center will be held in English.

Because there are only a limited number of places available each semester, passing the assessment center does not automatically mean being accepted onto the program. A final decision about whether you have been selected to take part in the program will only be made after all the assessment centers at the different sites within the network have been completed.

Femtec scholarship holders on an excursion
Femtec scholarship holders on an excursion

You can participate at all schools and on excursions and have individual careers advice from the Femtec Network free of charge, and you only need to pay the costs for traveling and accommodation. As a scholarship holder from the University of Stuttgart, you can apply for a grant to contribute towards travel expenses.

It is not to be understood as financial support towards the cost of your studies!

The Femtec Career-Building Programme
The Femtec Career-Building Programme

The Femtec Career-Building Program includes three schools, one per semester. The first school must begin at the end of the semester in which you were accepted for the program. Providing you complete the program without any interruptions, you will finish it at the end of the third semester after being accepted.

The deadline for the first school is mandatory, meaning you may only apply if you can also meet this deadline. If you then have an important reason why you cannot meet either of the two other school deadlines, for example you are doing a semester abroad or you’re doing an internship, you can change courses with the prior agreement of Femtec GmbH.  However, you should still complete the whole program before you graduate.

Upon successful completion of the program, you can earn credit points and receive a certificate. Unfortunately, it is not possible to count these credits towards your studies at the University of Stuttgart.

The career-building program has been accredited by the FIBAA (Foundation of International Business Administration Accreditation) since December 2016.

Femtec scholarship holders at the annual summer party
Femtec scholarship holders at the annual summer party

Alongside the contacts to the partner companies and universities represented in the Femtec Network, as a scholarship holder you will also get access to the Femtec Alumnae network. In this network of tech-savvy women, which since it began has spread all around the world, you are guaranteed to find the right person to speak to, whatever questions you may have:

  • Who has experience with doing an internship in Asia?
  • How should I prepare for a study abroad program, for example with a university in Russia?
  • What’s the work-life balance like at Company X?

The answer is often only an e-mail away.

Logo und Gruppenbild zum 10-jährigen Jubiläum des Femtec.Alumnae e.V.
10th anniversary of Femtec.Alumnae e.V.

The Femtec.Alumnae e.V. was founded in 2008 by graduates of the Femtec Career-Building Program. The alumnae continue to benefit from a strong network and from professional exchange.

Its main aim is to boost the career prospects of women – especially in technical or scientific fields – and to achieve a better work-life balance for both women and men.

The network holds regular meetings at the headquarters of each regional group. The Stuttgart Femtec Alumnae regional group is the biggest and most active in the Femtec Network. Their meetings are attended by

  • Alumnae who have already begun their careers at companies in the region,
  • Active Femtec scholarship holders at the University of Stuttgart, and
  • Femtec members from other universities who are doing an internship or writing their master’s or doctorate thesis in Stuttgart.

This makes up a versatile network, which members use for an in-depth exchange of experiences. Those who are interested in getting an invite can get in touch by sending an e-mail to the leaders of the regional group.

Furthermore, the Femtec.Alumnae e.V. organizes additional training programs and coaching sessions for its members, and a mentoring scheme together with the Union of German Zonta Clubs [de].

Members get involved in joint projects together with schools, universities and companies to try and get more young women interested in technical careers. So for example, regular workshops for high school girls are held at the University of Stuttgart under the motto „Girls macht MI(n)T” [de]. As a Femtec scholarship holder, these workshops mean you can network proactively.

Information on the Femtec.Alumnae e.V. [de]

Logos of the network partners of the Femtec Network
Network partners of the Femtec Network

Are you interested in the Femtec Career-Building Program? If you would like to know the criteria you need to fulfill, what exactly the career-building program consists of and when the next school deadlines are, you can find additional information here.

Do you have any questions on the program or on how to apply?

The Femtec coordinator at the University of Stuttgart holds an info event during the application period every semester, where you can ask any questions you may have. You also have the opportunity to talk with current scholarship holders and alumnae of the Femtec Career-Building Programme and get more of an impression of what it’s all about first hand.

Of course, you can also get in touch with the Femtec coordinator at the University of Stuttgart at any time via e-mail or by phone – she will be happy to advise you in person.

Success stories

Celine Geiger, Femtec alumna from the University of Stuttgart, engineer at Tesla Motors in Silicon Valley

Celine Geiger
Celine Geiger
 

Femtec coordination

Birke Bödecker

 

Organisation of student projects

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