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Dual Career Network Thuringia

It is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit good employees and demographic change means that there is real competition for the best management-level staff – in business and administration as well as in academia. 

For management staff the responsibilities of a new position, the salary and the social and cultural environment are not the only important factors in deciding whether to accept the offer of a new job. The professional future of a potential new recruit’s partner is also a key issue. 

Thuringia’s universities and a large number of companies are already in close contact regarding staff recruitment. In order to expand and strengthen this network, the Dual Career Network Thuringia was set up on 14 October 2013. Nineteen companies, universities and other institutions declared their intention to work together in this network and to exchange views and experiences regularly on the topic. Apart from Friedrich Schiller University Jena, founding members are six other Thuringian universities, non-university research institutes, companies such as Carl Zeiss Jena and Alere Technologies, as well as institutions such as the Jena employment agency (Agentur für Arbeit Jena), Jena Business Development and the Beutenberg Campus Jena e.V. association. 
 

Aim of the Network

‘Dual Career couples’ are usually highly qualified and specialised, with each partner pursuing an independent career. For such couples, moving up the career ladder involves frequent changes of job and place of residence. As a result, the partner’s career prospects and opportunities for the family’s development at the new location play a crucial role in the decision to take a job. 

The Dual Career Network Thuringia was set up in October 2013 to provide better support for Dual Career couples, with the help of partners from Thuringian universities, research institutes, businesses and other interested institutions. The primary aim of the network’s activities is to support the professional and personal integration of Dual Career couples in Thuringia. We see ourselves as the local contact point, providing information about life and work in Thuringia, and offering encouragement and help during the orientation stage or with applications. The applicants themselves have final responsibility for the tasks involved in finding a new job. A Dual Career couple will be assisted by the relevant institution, that is to say the institution where one member of the couple is or will be employed, and where necessary the couple will also be supported by the Dual Career Network Thuringia. We guarantee that all information, in particular data relating to Dual Career couples of all the network’s members, will be handled with strict confidentiality. 

We regard the support of Dual Career couples as a key component of a family-friendly human resources policy and an important criterion in recruiting staff for Thuringia and retaining them over the long term. Together we want to define and promote the network’s activities relating to Dual Careers. Membership of the network begins with the signing of the declaration of intent and it is for an unlimited period, so that it is designed for long-term cooperation.


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