Every year, at the end of April, hundreds of workplaces open their doors to the curious minds of girls from all over Austria. Starting in 1993 the National Girls‘ Day is meant to „take our daughters to work“ and inspire career choices slightly off the obvious „doctor, lawyer, hairdresser“ choice. 

What better day than the national Girls‘ Day to take an Inspiration Visit to the city of Linz together with the 8th-grade girls at BauBox?! 

So, early Wednesday morning, we met at Vienna’s Westbahnhof to board the train. Very exciting, since most of the girls have never been to Linz before, even though it’s only a 2 hour train ride away. 

We all missed school that day, so some of the time spent on the train had to be used to take a quick math test, with the math teacher on board. (We’ll later know, that it turned out fine for all of us :))

Arriving at Linz train station, we were greeted by the head of EREMA Academy, the learning and development division of the world’s leading producer of plastic recycling machines. A handful of kilometers outside the city, the sheer size of the EREMA campus amazed us all. But the inside was even more impressive. Ronny gave us a tour of various departments of the company, taking looks at everything from small laboratories to gigantic halls of recycling machines, ready to be shipped across the world for their mission. 

So far, we have only used small power tools such as drills and the jigsaw working on BauBox projects. Seeing people operate those massive machines with precision and care, we were inspired to ask tons of questions about working at a place like this. Do you support women working here? Do you have good team to work with? How much money do you earn here? Is it hard? What do you like most about your work? Is it hard to get an apprenticeship here? What do you look for in applicants? And on, and on, and on…

By the time we left EREMA for our next stop each one of us was thinking about applying for a trainee position here as soon as school was over. We really enjoyed looking behind the scenes at such a big company.

Our next stop was just as cool, albeit very different. The Grand Garage Linz is a huge maker space many storeys high. Countless studios offer space for tinkering, building, and even raising start-ups. Sadly, the welding workshop was fully booked for this day. But that’s not a problem – we’ll just come back next year to spend Girls‘ Day welding!

We didn’t go back empty-handed, though. Instead of joining metal, we soldered circuits and produced little gadgets for our siblings.

Concentrating on the tiny bits and pieces necessary for soldering, we only had half an ear to listen to Barbara’s stories about the power of STEM education and the opportunities a curious mind offers for further exploring the world.  

By the time we left Linz, we were not only exhausted and overwhelmed by all the impressions of the day. We had a newfound appreciation for the STEAM field and the many career opportunities it offered. The girls realized that there were so many exciting paths one could take, and we felt energized and inspired to pursue bigger dreams than before. Our visit to Linz was truly an inspiration we’d not forget for a long time to come.