Confidence boosters: A year of talent scouting at H-BRS

Talentscouting NRW Cesar Nohlen Lubecki Muck StA 20260713 Foto Juri Kuestenmacher 01

Their job: to offer encouragement. Gabriela Cesar and Konrad Dohlen visit schools in the region to advise and support young people from structurally disadvantaged backgrounds as they make their choices about further education and careers.

Gabriela Cesar and Konrad Dohlen are the university’s talent scouts. Pictured here with Ulrike Lubecki from the Student Advice Centre and Vice-President Peter Muck. Photo: Juri Küstenmacher

A lot has happened since the H-BRS Student Advice Centre joined the NRW state talent scouting programme at the end of 2024. Talent scouts Gabriela Cesar and Konrad Dohlen have been visiting schools across the region as the H-BRS talent scouting duo since spring 2025 and have so far supported a total of eight partner schools in the Rhein-Sieg district, the Euskirchen district and the city of Bonn. Around 50 young people are already taking part in the programme – a great success for this first academic year.

The NRW Talent Scouting programme is a completely new state-level initiative for the university. It was first launched in the Ruhr region a good ten years ago. Following extensive conceptual work and the establishment of new structures and networks, regular school visits are now part of the daily routine for the two talent scouts, who travel extensively throughout the region. Their base is the Sankt Augustin campus, but their duties take them not only to regular appointments at the NRW Centre for Talent Development in Gelsenkirchen but, above all, to their partner schools in the region, where they offer outreach counselling with an open-ended approach and act as mentors and sources of encouragement for young people from structurally disadvantaged backgrounds. The scouts primarily support motivated and hard-working young people from families with a history of migration and/or refugee backgrounds, young people who are the first in their family to aim for the Abitur and a university degree, who come from less privileged families on social security benefits, or who have to overcome other types of risk situations and structural barriers along the way. The scouts provide personalised support, offer encouragement and assistance so that young people can decide for themselves which educational path they wish to take. The NRW Talent Scouting programme succeeds in breaking the mould of predetermined life paths through personalised, ongoing support, thereby contributing to greater educational equity in the region.

Anyone wishing to get to know the talent scouts is welcome to contact them or visit them on the Sankt Augustin campus in room E023 (provided they are not currently out on a mission across the region).

NRW Talent Scouting

The NRW Talent Scouting programme began in 2011 at the Westphalian University of Applied Sciences in Gelsenkirchen. Thanks to support from the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Science, the project has since expanded to 27 universities of applied sciences and universities across the state. Today, more than 110 talent scouts from 27 universities support upper-secondary school pupils as they transition into vocational training or a (dual) degree programme, right through to their entry into the world of work. They have been trained and certified by the NRW Centre for Talent Development in Gelsenkirchen. Around 600 vocational colleges, comprehensive schools and grammar schools are now part of the programme. When identifying talent, the talent scouts focus on the achievements young people demonstrate within their respective life contexts. They highlight possible paths, build helpful networks and provide access to existing support mechanisms within the education system. The advice provided is non-directive.