VWGIS organises Girls' Day 2023 at the Hanover site
VWGIS colleagues shouting a cheerful "Good morning" to each other on their way to the office - that's the common early morning picture at Pelikanplatz. Yesterday, Thursday, however, the start to the day at the Hanover site looked special: A group of 12 girls aged 12 to 14 were curiously waiting at the main entrance to be welcomed by colleagues and Christian. Because unlike the last two years, this time Girls' Day at Volkswagen Group IT Solutions took place live and in colour.
It started at 9.00 a.m. with a relaxed welcome round and a tour of the building with Christian Lenkeit, who is responsible for the site. Here, the participants gained a first impression of the flex-desk workplaces and the modern conference rooms and New Work Spaces. The seating areas, Gis cubes and reclining chairs, which some girls would also like for their classrooms, were particularly well received. At 9.30 a.m. the first session started in the conference room "Maschsee".
In addition to a short round of introductions of the participants, our training officer Cindy and the trainee for IT Aurel started with their information about the training and internship opportunities at VWGIS. Then a first teambuilding game called "Chair Game", moderated by the Agile Coach Moritz, was on the agenda. Here, the students had to find out and prove whether it is possible to create the desired "chair picture" in the conference room without communicating with each other. The first learning thanks to this game: without the exchange and getting to know each other, it will not be possible to work successfully as a team.
The next session was dedicated to the Research & Insights Team. Research Mangager Jan and Research Manager Franziska presented their tasks and taught the young adults how to properly design their own feedback survey for Girls' Day. The results were recorded by the students on a whiteboard and presented.
Then it was already time for the "big break" and plenty of pizza for the students. During this time, there was a lot of talking, laughing and networking. Well fortified, they then went into a short warm-up game after the break called "Story Cubes". Agile Coach Moritz showed the participants how to spontaneously start telling stories with the motif cubes and why it is important to give creativity free rein in order to be able to develop new ideas and solutions.
In a coding session, colleague Sarah and colleague Tom explained to the girls what tasks they take on in Software Development GVF and showed them how to code the mini game "Scissors, Rock, Paper" using a short Java excursion. Sarah also gave an insight into her personal career and tips for a successful start for women in the IT industry.
Afterwards, the IT rollout team around Michel, Justin and Max-Luca reported on their tasks in the D!AS project and illustrated the topic with cool YouTube videos. In addition to the technical lecture, they inspired the schoolgirls with the reading of a vehicle key on site.
After a short snack break, the last session of the day with the UX/UI colleagues from the Competence Center Luba and Christian was playful. Both impressively took the students on their journey into the world of UX and UI design. They showed the group what an experience journey is all about and how it can be represented graphically. Using a practical example, the students were then able to record their own user journey on the white board and present it to each other.
The eventful day ended in the early afternoon. The conclusion of the VWGIS Girls' Day in Presence was positive throughout: In the final feedback round, all the schoolgirls agreed after the online survey that a job in IT is definitely an option for them in the future!