Lower Austria with an online tool to help professional reorientation

So far, 6500 people have benefited from it

Lower Austria has an online tool that aims to identify professional strengths. The Lower Austrian Competence Compass has been around for almost five months. More than 6,500 people have used the tool so far, including mostly women and younger people.

The first phase of education and career counselling is to assist people in taking the next steps and offers information about training and further education, subsidies, and future opportunities. The online tool consists of 31 questions that must be answered online.

Next, the responses are scientifically analysed, and the resulting competencies are identified. The method can be used to help with decision-making during a professional reorientation. Many people then go on to discuss the results of the questionnaire in one of the country's educational therapy centres. They are helped here to find new professional paths. 

Helping citizens with professional reorientation

It is important for the job market to know one's skills and the Lower Austrian Competence Compass serves as a navigational aid. Everyone acquires skills throughout their lives, such as caring for a relative or becoming a member of a club, that may or may not have been used professionally so far. The high proportion of women among Kompetenzkompass graduates demonstrates that women must reposition themselves more frequently in their professional lives due to parental leave, childcare, and the related part-time jobs.

“The labour market in Lower Austria is very liquid, which means that there are frequent changes. But there are also sectors, like healthcare, where we urgently need additional people. And if someone notices in the course of the competency compass that he or she has a particular social talent here, then that would be a good opportunity to switch to this professional sector,” said regional councillor Martin Eichtinger (ÖVP), who is responsible for the labour market.

The tool is now being further upgraded in order to continue in a more target-oriented manner and to help older people, who are currently in a tense labour market situation and must reorient themselves. It is suggested, for example, that the questions be developed in a more distinct manner.