Steinbeis University – Schools of NExt Practices prides itself in the sharp focus on ensuring that its students are well prepared for the ever-changing space that is employment. A university education should do more than help students earn a qualification. It should prepare them to understand their strengths, apply their knowledge, adapt to change and navigate the employment market with confidence.

This is becoming increasingly important in Germany. According to the Federal Statistical Office, approximately 45.41 million people were employed in August 2026. After seasonal adjustment, employment fell by 29,000 compared with July and by 235,000 compared with August 2025. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 4.0%, while the unadjusted rate rose from 3.9% in August 2025 to 4.3% in August 2026. These figures point to a labour market in which graduates must be prepared to demonstrate what they can contribute - not simply which degree they hold.

This is becoming increasingly important in Germany. According to the Federal Statistical Office, approximately 45.41 million people were employed in August 2026. After seasonal adjustment, employment fell by 29,000 compared with July and by 235,000 compared with August 2025. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 4.0%, while the unadjusted rate rose from 3.9% in August 2025 to 4.3% in August 2026. These figures point to a labour market in which graduates must be prepared to demonstrate what they can contribute-not simply which degree they hold.

At the same time, the widely discussed gap between education and employment remains a challenge. Employers increasingly look for practical experience, adaptability, communication, digital competence and evidence of real-world problem-solving. Academic knowledge remains important, but students also need opportunities to practise using that knowledge in realistic situations.

Career planning must therefore begin before graduation. Guidance published by Times Higher Education argues that career preparation should be embedded throughout a student’s degree and treated as a continuing process. Students benefit from reflecting on their direction, developing application skills and taking ownership of their professional development-even when their future career path is uncertain.

For international students, another dimension is involved: learning how to operate within a new professional culture. German workplaces vary considerably by sector and organisation, but qualities such as punctuality, preparation, clear communication and fact-based feedback are commonly associated with professional life in Germany. Understanding such expectations can help international students interpret workplace situations and participate more confidently.

These are some of the challenges that Steinbeis University – Schools of Next Practices aims to address through its career-development journey. Instead of treating employability as a single workshop shortly before graduation, S-Next combines academic projects, reflection, simulations, coaching and digital tools across the student experience.

Here are seven ways S-Next helps students prepare for the future of work.

1. The Transfer Project: applying academic knowledge to a real challenge

The Transfer Project is mandatory across Steinbeis Next degree programmes and develops throughout the curriculum. Depending on the programme, it includes two or three connected academic components: Project Study Work, Study Work and the Bachelor’s or Master’s thesis.

Students begin by identifying a real-world challenge or research interest, often connected to a professional or organisational context. They then clarify a focused research question, investigate it using appropriate scientific methods and translate their findings into structured, actionable insights.

This process brings together two environments that are sometimes treated separately: the world of science and the world of business. Students are not only asked to understand theory; they must learn how to use research methods to examine a relevant problem and communicate conclusions that others can act upon.

Support is available throughout the process. Transfer Project Days introduce students to the requirements and help them begin planning their work. Project Coaching Sessions cover project setup, qualitative and quantitative research methods, academic structure, citations and formal criteria. Topic-focused sessions address areas including digital transformation and AI, marketing, sustainability, organisational psychology, change management, strategy and entrepreneurship.

Presentation and Rhetoric Days help students prepare to communicate and defend their work, while Project Presentation Sessions give every student an opportunity to present their Project Study Work and receive feedback. This sustained process builds research competence, project management, critical thinking and professional communication-not only at the end of the degree, but throughout it.

2. The Innovation Project: learning to develop and defend an idea

The Innovation Project gives students a different form of applied experience. It is a required four-month team module for selected programmes, bringing students together in interdisciplinary groups of three to five.

Each team identifies a problem, develops an applicable solution and considers its potential users and business context. The students prepare a business presentation, pitch their concept during a live session and respond to questions from assessors. They can then use the feedback to refine their work before final assessment.

The project is not limited to generating an attractive idea. Students must explain how the idea creates value, test their assumptions and show that they understand both the solution and its practical application.

This develops teamwork, creativity, structured problem-solving, presentation skills and the ability to defend decisions under questioning. To see how this works in practice, read Beyond the Buzzword: Inside S-Next’s Innovation Project – Students Defend and Pitch.

3. Career Anchors: understanding what makes work meaningful

Career planning is difficult when students are unsure what they want from their professional lives. This is why the S-Next career-development journey begins with reflection.

Career Anchors help students consider the abilities, motivations and values that influence their career choices. For one student, autonomy may be important. Another may be motivated by specialist expertise, leadership, security, entrepreneurship or contributing to a wider purpose.

The purpose is not to assign students one permanent career identity. Instead, it gives them a framework for asking better questions: What kind of work energises me? What environments allow me to perform well? Which compromises am I willing or unwilling to make?

Students can use these insights to establish an initial career objective and begin identifying a suitable Transfer Project topic. Their plans can then be reviewed as they gain new experiences. This encourages deliberate career choices while recognising that professional goals may change over time.

4. Business Simulations: practising decisions before facing the consequences

Knowing a business concept and applying it under pressure are very different skills. S-Next Marketplace Simulations provide an experiential environment in which students can build and manage virtual companies, make strategic decisions, allocate resources and respond to changing market conditions.

Rather than only discussing strategy, marketing, finance or operations in isolation, participants see how decisions in one area affect the organisation as a whole. They must evaluate information, agree on priorities and respond to results.

The simulations also create space for students to make mistakes safely. A poor decision becomes an opportunity to examine what happened, adjust the strategy and try again. This feedback cycle helps students develop commercial awareness, teamwork and decision-making confidence.

Through immersive, hands-on scenarios, the simulations are designed to bridge academic concepts and real-world business application. Learn more about S-Next Marketplace Simulations.

5. Competency Assessment Simulations: making strengths and development needs visible

Before students can communicate their abilities to an employer, they must first recognise and understand them.

Competency Assessment Simulations allow students to observe how they approach realistic professional situations. Depending on the activity, this may involve analysing information, solving problems, contributing to a team, communicating an idea or responding to a challenge.

The emphasis is on demonstrated behaviour rather than self-perception alone. Feedback can help students identify strengths they may have underestimated and areas that require further development.

These insights can then support more focused career planning. A student may decide to develop greater confidence in presentations, practise responding to feedback or seek further experience in collaborative decision-making. Competency awareness also helps students give more specific answers in applications and interviews because they can support their claims with examples.

6. Group Career Coaching: learning with professionals, alumni and peers

Career development should not happen in isolation. Through Group Career Coaching, students explore practical employment topics alongside their peers and gain access to perspectives from people already working in professional environments.

Sessions can address the German employment market and labour law, competencies, job interviews, personal branding and other aspects of preparing for working life. S-Next alumni may also be invited to speak or lead workshops, allowing current students to learn from people who have already moved from university into the professional world.

Alumni can offer a realistic view of job searches, workplace expectations and the adjustments involved in starting or changing a career. For international students in particular, these conversations can help make unfamiliar professional norms easier to understand.

The group format also gives students a space to exchange experiences, ask questions and learn from one another. Career preparation becomes a continuing conversation rather than a one-time appointment.

7. JoinNext: increasing visibility and access to opportunities

JoinNext is the S-Next job-search and profile platform. Students are encouraged to create and maintain profiles that present their qualifications, experience, interests and competencies.

The platform can help students discover relevant job opportunities while making their profiles visible to companies searching for potential candidates. Regular profile updates are included within the wider S-Next career-development journey, encouraging students to document new skills and experience as they progress through their studies.

JoinNext does not guarantee employment or replace the work involved in a successful job search. Its value lies in supporting visibility and providing another route through which students and companies may find one another.

More importantly, JoinNext forms part of a larger approach that prepares students to pursue opportunities independently. By the time they use the platform, they have already begun reflecting on their career direction, applying knowledge through projects, practising business decisions, assessing their competencies and developing their professional communication.

Preparing students to navigate, not predict, the future

No university can predict every profession, technology or industry shift its students will encounter. It can, however, help them develop the ability to learn, adapt and act.

That is the purpose of the S-Next career-development journey. The Transfer Project connects research with practice. The Innovation Project develops collaborative problem-solving. Career Anchors encourage reflection. Business and Competency Assessment Simulations create opportunities to practise. Group Career Coaching brings students into conversation with peers, alumni and professionals. JoinNext helps make opportunities and student profiles more visible.

Together, these seven solutions reflect the S-Next principle of More Than Just Study. The objective is not only to help students obtain a degree or depend on the university to provide company connections. It is to equip them with practical experience, career awareness and professional confidence so they can identify, pursue and create opportunities for themselves-during their studies and long after graduation.