Jasmin Seidl, a student at the St. Pölten UAS, received the science award for social work for her bachelor thesis at the annual conference of the Austrian Society for Social Work in Salzburg.

To finish her studies, Seidl worked on developing a web app supporting young people when it comes to their professional orientation and career choice.

App, Bachelor Thesis and Startup

Jasmin Seidl and Tanja Hössel, students of the bachelor programme Social Work, developed an app called “BenGoo!” at the St. Pölten UAS. Its goal is to facilitate the online job search for students and their caregivers by adding targeted additional links to the search – in a modern and playful way. In her – now award-winning – bachelor thesis, Seidl examined the process of the app development.

“The app is an easy-to-handle instrument which enables young people to look for a job independently while supporting them in their search”, says Andrea Rogy, lecturer in the bachelor programme Social Work at the St. Pölten UAS. Rogy managed the bachelor project “Survey of Compulsory Education or Training for Young People under 18” in the course of which the bachelor thesis was written.

Seidl and Hössel are part of the business start-up programme Creative Pre-Incubator of the St. Pölten UAS.

International Week Organised by Social Work

Recently, the International Week of Social Work under the motto “Diversity Matters – meeting the challenges of plurality and differences in/for Social Work” was organised at the St. Pölten UAS. 57 students and 15 lecturers from 12 European partner universities and 8 different countries participated in the International Week at the St. Pölten UAS. The International Week, which took place at three different universities at the same time, was the 20th International University Week of SocNet98, the European Network of Universities/Schools of Social Work.

The programme included workshops, discussions and excursions. Students visited institutions such as a counselling centre for men, the youth centre “Pulverturm” and the addiction counselling centre of Caritas. The UAS-based Campus & City Radio St. Pölten designed a supporting programme which allowed the students to put their media use to the test at the same time.

International Dialogue

“The International Week on the topic ‘Diversity matters’ is an example of a very successful project. To enter into dialogue is crucial in times like these. By mixing the participants and working on the topics as a team, the different perspectives were made visible”, explains Andrea Pilgerstorfer, International Coordinator of the Department Social Sciences at the St. Pölten UAS. 

The European Network of Social Universities (SocNet) organises the annual International University Week. This year, host institutions – in addition to the St. Pölten UAS – were the Universities of Applied Sciences and Art Hasselt (Belgium) and Budweis (Czech Republic).