TRAVELLING EXHIBITION

NATURAL SCIENCES

ÖZGE: "Being curious, exploring the foundations of life - studying the natural sciences offers me a lot of opportunities. For example in health and nutrition, energy, climate and mobility."

One thing’s for sure: natural sciences are much more than a mishmash of fabulous formulae, strong compounds and impressive phenomenons. Natural sciences explain how the Earth, the world and life work while still forming the basis for our everyday habits:

Biological sciences explain what happens in a body infected with the flu and what helps. Chemistry doesn’t just offer medication to tackle the infection, but also keeps your breakfast yoghurt fresher. Without physics, communication via phones and the internet would be as unthinkable as sustainable energy or e-mobility. Geosciences now help us purposefully get from A to B thanks to GPS. Natural sciences offer solutions across all important areas, such as health and nutrition, energy and the climate, communication, security and mobility.

The options for studying natural sciences are varied. There are more than 35 different Bachelor’s degree programmes in biological sciences, from agricultural biology to biosystem technology to water science. Chemistry degrees are just as diverse: from inorganic chemistry and organic chemistry to biochemistry, macromolecular and physical chemistry, with an analytical or technical focus – a chemistry degree offers a good mix of theory and practice. Comprising experimental physics, theoretical physics and mathematics, physics degrees tend to be similar and offer a good blend of the practical realisation of experiments and theoretical mathematical models.

No matter the speciality, the natural sciences offer excellent prospects and exceptional opportunities on the job market – whether that’s in industry, research or public service.

• Trend-setting
• Innovative
• Qualifying
• Promising

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

KATHARINA: "Being creative and always trying out new things - I have plenty of opportunities for that in my IT studies and can choose what area I want to work in later."

Digital data is playing an increasingly key role in our lives: cars, supermarket tills, washing machines, X-ray machines – they all need IT to work. Wherever processes are managed or simulated digitally, wherever large amounts of data are processed and information used and managed, computer scientists are needed.

IT is a young subject. That’s one reason why it’s so dynamic and interdisciplinary. There is no longer just one IT subject, rather hundreds of IT-relevant subjects with many applied combinations such as medical IT, media IT, geo IT and economic IT.

It’s a myth that computer scientists spend all day at a screen. They generally work in teams with the aim of finding solutions together: for therapy concepts, marketing measures, admin organisation, training materials and much more. If you enjoy logical thinking, like solving brain teasers, and are not afraid of maths, you have what it takes to work in IT.

• Profitable
• Future-oriented
• Groundbreaking
• Varied

ENGINEERING

ALICIA: "Facing exciting challenges, creating useful things - engineering is the engine for development and progress. That means a degree in engineering is a good foundation for my professional future."

Technology is not just a central aspect of our everyday lives but also an all-round genius without which our modern lives would not be possible. Cars, planes, cameras and TVs, computers and MP3 players, food processors, toasters, electric toothbrushes – the list of technical accomplishments is endless.

But technology is also the key to our future: more and more people are living longer, requiring more food, medicines and industrial goods. Increasingly large cities need clever town planning, safe infrastructure and intelligent control systems. More and more energy is being consumed, so technology is required to cover the whole energy chain.

The challenges of our future are often only feasible with technical solutions. It’s a good job that the world of technology is not just a world of intelligent inventions and solutions, but above all a world of fascinating careers with excellent prospects and opportunities.

There are many technical fields and even more degree options: the top five engineering programmes, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, process engineering, construction engineering and business administration & engineering, comprise around 80 specialisation profiles such as drive engineering, renewable energies, plant engineering, vehicle technology, food technology and environmental technology. And there are even specialist areas with specifically tailored focal points such as agricultural engineering, theatre and event technology or viticulture.

• Future-proof
• Worthwhile
• Promising
• In demand

MATHEMATICS

JENNIFER: "Getting to the bottom of problems, finding solutions - that's what I'm really into. Studying mathematics offers me the perfect foundation for that."

Technology, the economy, medicine, finance – mathematics permeates all of these important aspects of our modern life. From checking the weather forecast to sending a text to reading the bus timetable – we come across maths every day as it answers our questions and makes our lives more comfortable.

A maths degree combines arithmetic with future prospects, resulting in a versatile qualification. Mathematicians with a university degree find attractive jobs in almost all lucrative industries, be that research and development, the private sector, finance and insurance or the high-tech industry.

In a mathematics degree programme, students learn to independently analyse, mathematise, simplify, abstract and extrapolate into a wider understanding. One important aspect: translating scientific, technical, medical and economic phenomenons into mathematical models so that calculations can be made.

Maths is a discipline with two defined branches. On one hand, there is pure mathematics, which comprises algebra, analysis, discrete mathematics, geometry, logic, topology and number theory. Graduates come across excellent prospects in research and development but also in business consulting among other sectors.

Applied mathematics, on the other hand, covers algorithmic mathematics, differential equations, finance mathematics, modelling, numerical mathematics, optimisation and stochastics. Graduates of these subjects are met with far-reaching job prospects in the high-tech industry, in economics companies and in banking/insurance.

• Promising
• Future-proof
• Pioneering
• Worthwhile

MY EDUCATION

THERESIA: "Get practical experience and earn your own money immediately. Training in the STEM sector offers me a lot of career opportunities and good pay while in training. Specialists in this field are also in high demand."

There are many opportunities for training in the STEM field:

In maths, education is possible in industry, manufacturing or finance: the number of careers where maths is the measure of all things is on the rise.

You can also train to become a computer scientist or IT specialist. IT career training is offered in heavy industry, in retail, in public services and in manufacturing.

There is a wide range of education options in natural sciences, with programmes aimed at training biologists, chemists, physics laboratory technicians and technical assistants.

The technical job landscape is becoming more and more diverse, prospects more laden with opportunity and job descriptions more interesting, whether you decide to become an equipment mechanic, electrician, wood technician, confectionary engineer or orthopaedic technician.

• Worthwhile
• Diverse
• Career foundation
• In demand