The focus of the STEM specialist initiative Lake Constance: "MINTful Future" project is the development of a regional ecosystem that specifically addresses the issue of recruiting skilled workers for the MINT industries.
The challenge
Digitalization, de-globalization, decarbonization, demographics. To put it positively: The economy is on the move. Many solutions to the 4Ds are directly linked to STEM* talent and their drive. This is why the shortage of STEM specialists is hitting these areas particularly hard. Regionally, too, the first resulting effects are already being felt, such as the impairment of innovative strength and competitiveness, particularly in the life sciences sector. High-tech companies from the healthcare and life sciences sector in the region see a great need for action to tackle the issue of STEM skills shortages in a targeted manner.
The potential
The Lake Constance location has enormous potential: renowned general education schools and universities such as the University of Excellence in Constance, which score highly with modern courses of study and highly qualified teaching and research, particularly in the STEM subjects. The aim of the project is to bring together the school and university graduates educated here with local high-tech companies. This keeps highly qualified specialists in the region and strengthens the companies in the long term.
The solution
While there are already specialized trade fairs for the STEM subjects in the major cities, the Lake Constance region has so far lacked a central offering for the STEM industries that bundles the region's training and job opportunities and presents them to an interested audience. BioLAGO closes this gap with the innovative offer of a tailor-made STEM service catalog, which includes year-round interactive activities on the subject of company branding and job opportunities, thus bringing together highly qualified specialists and regional high-tech companies quickly and easily. The highlight of the project will be an annual live event at which talents and companies, laboratories and clinics can intensify their previously established relationships, network and work on joint challenges in workshops.
The BioLAGO project aims to keep pupils and students (=tomorrow's specialists) in the region and also attract them to the region from abroad, which will strengthen Lake Constance as a business location in the long term. The central lever of the measures is the focus on the STEM sector, as such a special offer does not yet exist in the region. The project started in 2022.
