Would you like to have a companion by your side from time to time who knows the region and who can possibly "open doors"? We have a wonderful offer for you!

As the Welcome Center, we have trained so-called volunteer "Welcome Guides" for the third time.

These are committed citizens who have been at home in the TechnologieRegion Karlsruhe for several years and would like to help you settle in. Each guide is looking forward to accompanying a person from abroad individually for a period of six months.

The accompaniment should not be about visits to the authorities, translation services or similar, but much more about conversations, encounters, joint leisure activities, ... - about topics that you like, that you need and that will help you move forward.

We are sure that both sides - you and your guide will benefit from this new tandem programme.  The matching of the tandems (one guide and one international each) will be done by us as a Welcome Center.

Are you interested in a Welcome Guide? Please contact us!

What does a Welcome Guide do?

• Facilitates the start and further settling in of international professionals and students in the still unfamiliar environment.
• Shares own experiences, gives impulses for new contacts
• Shows opportunities for all family members
• Helps new fellow citizens to feel at home quickly
• Helps to learn the German language (language tandem)
• Promotes the welcome culture in the TechnologieRegion Karlsruhe

What is not included in the tasks of a Welcome Guide?

Services such as legal advice, accompaniment to offices, making appointments, translations, job coaching and checking application documents.

Who can become a Welcome Guide?

All citizens who feel at home in the TechnologieRegion Karlsruhe and are happy to share their experiences and tips. It doesn't matter whether you have lived in our region for a long time or have only felt at home for a short time.

International professionals and students like coming to the TechnologieRegion Karlsruhe (TRK). Integration at the workplace, at the university and also outside of everyday professional life must be actively promoted. What and with whom can you do on the weekend? Where can you find like-minded people and friends? How can you discover the region and new things? Almost every "international" faces these and similar questions.

Since 2021, the Welcome Center TechnologieRegion Karlsruhe has offered further support for international professionals and students, especially newcomers to the region: the tandem program "Welcome Guides". This project was created as part of the cooperation between the Welcome Center TRK and the Rotary Club Karlsruhe-Fächerstadt and will be continued by the Welcome Center in 2022.

Do you feel at home in our region and would like to support international professionals and students in arriving and settling in our society on a voluntary basis?

We are looking for people who would like to volunteer as Welcome Guides to assist an "international" for a limited period of time, especially with questions about settling in the region and where and how to make contacts.

We prepare you for your volunteer work with a customized training course on intercultural communication. You can expect an exciting and meaningful task as well as a certificate at the end. Participation in the training is free of charge.

Your Welcome Guide Training

Intercultural sensitization
Formation of the tandem relationship
Presentation of certificate

General conditions

Duration: 6 months
Frequency of contacts: Minimum 1x fortnightly
Form of the meetings is up to the tandem partners
The Welcome Center TRK is always available as a contact person

Instructor of the training

Meike von Platen-Holzapfel

Economist, Intercultural Consultant and Career Coach

At BASF, she shaped the welcome culture at the Ludwigshafen site for many years. She has supported numerous international specialists and managers in successfully managing their assignment to the company headquarters and in feeling at home in the region with their families. She also knows from her own experience the challenges that a new professional start in another country brings and how they can be successfully mastered.