Certificate programmes at the University of Göttingen

Do you want to work in consultancy after your graduation? Then ZESS’ Advisory Skills certificate programme can help you onto the careers ladder. You will learn a range of methods and techniques for giving advice and apply them in practical exercises. You will then use the skills you have gained in ‘real-life’ scenarios to analyse consultation meetings. Potential modules include the social skills modules “The Customer Meeting” and “Conflict Resolution and Cooperation” and modules on self-management such as “Work-Learn-Life-Balance”.

• Registration: Please register using FlexNow (in the week before each course application period) once you have successfully completed Core Module SK.AS.KK-32 (Communication Skills: Certification Course in Rhetoric: Conversation). Registration info

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Would you like to gain insights into the fascinating world of sign languages? On the German Sign Language certificate programme, you will gain both practical and theoretical linguistic and cultural science skills in German Sign Language (DGS). You will learn to understand the standard language and express yourself in DGS. In addition, you will learn a lot about various linguistic aspects of sign languages (e.g. their structure, meaning, use, change and variation) and specific cultural aspects of the sign language community.

• Work experience / practical section: As part of the certificate, you can attend the laboratory practical course SignLab: Sign Language Research in Practice and apply your practical language DGS knowledge scientifically. Here you can gain experience in the preparation, implementation and evaluation of data collection on DGS. Alternatively, you can attend a seminar in the field of sign language linguistics or Deaf Studies instead of the laboratory internship.
• Special notes: Our DGS language courses are taught exclusively by deaf native signers. This immersion is the ideal teaching situation as communication takes place mainly in DGS and if necessary with the support of German/DGS interpreters or in written German.
• Registration: tanja.recke@phil.uni-goettingen.de

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Would you like to take advantage of digitalisation and expand your knowledge in the field of Digital Humanities? The certificate programme will provide you with an overview of Digital Humanities topics, research questions and methods and will teach you the correct and appropriate application of the respective digital tools. You will quickly become familiar with new software structures and be able to apply it in your own small research project. The programme focusses on teaching students how to find solutions for typical problems from the Digital Humanities and thereby increases their creativity, flexibility and versatility. The certificate thus conveys basic digital skills that are increasingly in demand in all occupational fields inside and outside of academia.

• Work experience / practical section: At least one practical module (6C) must be completed.
• Special Notes: Some courses are offered in English. The credits acquired in the certificate can be credited to the BA and MA Digital Humanities degree programmes.
• Registration: Please register using FlexNow.

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If you are interested in an academic approach to interreligiosity, reflecting on specialist knowledge and applying it to concrete theological and social issues, then the EIRENE certificate programme is for you. As well as the basics of intercultural communication the programme also includes specialist and methodical skills in a choice of focal regions (e.g. Africa, Asia). It also offers work experience in a church community or school that reflects people of a different origin.

• Work experience / practical section: Incl. work experience
• Special notes: Teaching language: English and German
• Registration: You can register online for a module.

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We aim to
- familiarize students with the basics of experimental work in psycholinguistics
- enable students to develop and implement linguistic research questions
- qualify students for independent and responsible handling of quantitative data

• Work experience / practical section: Experiments and exercises for scripting in R (data handling, preparation and visualization)
• Registration: Personal registration by email to Dr. Thomas Weskott

website in progress

Whether you want in future to work in corporate health management or just to improve your own health, the Health Awareness: Healthy Living and Studying certificate programme is a good introduction. You will learn basic health science knowledge as well as skills for a healthy lifestyle, self-regulation and healthy practices. What you learn can be applied both as skills in the workplace to improve health at work as well as in your own life.

• Registration: Please register using FlexNow (in the week before each course application period) once you have successfully completed Core Module SK.HSp.GK-01 (Health Awareness: A Healthy Lifestyle in Study, Work and Leisure – an Interdisciplinary Introduction). Registration info

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How can ideas turn into successful innovations? Can anyone think and act like an entrepreneur? What needs to be considered in the process of implementing innovations, and how are startups managed?
The entrepreneurial spirit, meaning the willingness and competence to develop innovative ideas and put them into action, is of central importance nowadays - not only for startups but also for medium-sized enterprises.
The “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” certificate programme provides the perfect basis for this and offers the opportunity to put theoretical content into practice in terms of a project.

• Work experience / practical section: project module
• Special notes: The certificate programme of SNIC innovation academy is part of the project "SüdniedersachsenInnovationsCampus – SNIC“ supported by the European Union and the German state of Lower Saxony. It is offered on every campus in Southern Lower Saxony.
• Registration: Registration is possible via Flex Now and innovationsakademie@snic.de. Registration info

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Changes in society and globalization in professional contexts require intercultural competencies for various groups. Taking this into consideration, students will be able to participate in the certificate program “Intercultural Trainer” and obtain basic knowledge and intercultural communication skills while connecting them to advanced train-the-trainer courses for intercultural trainings. Students will design and conduct individual trainings in a team teaching module.

• Registration: Register via StudIP

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Taking the Journalistic Practice certificate programme can be a stepping stone to starting a career in journalism or public relations. Besides a basic course and two compulsory modules on writing skills, the elective part of the course offers the chance to specialise in visual or audio media or in public relations. What you learn will be applied on a three-week placement on an editorial team.

• Work experience / practical section: Incl. work experience
• Registration: Please register using FlexNow (in the week before each course application period) once you have successfully completed Core Module SK.AS.MK-27 (Media Skills: Journalistic Practice: An Introduction to Journalism). Registration info

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Are you interested in linguistics and want to learn how linguistic and cultural diversity can be recorded and documented? In the applied and interdisciplinary programme "Language Documentation and Linguistic Analysis", which is dedicated to the creation of resources for the languages of the world, you will learn how to investigate languages from different parts of the world and how to create linguistic multimedia archives. In recent years, new digital methods have been developed in the field of language documentation, which has also resulted in new employment opportunities. This goes hand in hand with the current awareness for the preservation of the cultural heritage of mankind, which is expressed in many initiatives of international organisations such as Unesco and various national/international foundations.

• Work experience / practical section: A practical section is part of the programme, in particular relating to the creation of language archives.
• Special Notes: Course language: German or English (cf. course descriptions)
• Registration: You may register online via FlexNow for each of the required modules. A background in linguistics at the level of a (successfully completed) „introduction to linguistics” is required.

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Producing explanatory videos, blogging, twittering, podcasting, laying out posters and designing media education scenarios with digital tools - all this and much more is part of the certificate programme Media Skills. As well as these very practical workshop courses, there is also a theoretical unit on which you will look at current communication structures and mechanisms and tackle the psychological aspects and effects of distribution of information by the media. On concluding the certificate programme, you will combine theory and practice by choosing a theme and realising it in a suitable medium. Throughout the programme, you will also build up a portfolio in which you record your thoughts, experiences and observations.

• Work experience / practical section: Workshop scenarios and excursions
• Registration: Admission to the Media Skills certificate programme follows an initial interview with the course coordinator. Please register using FlexNow (in the week before each course application period) once you have successfully completed a Core Module (SK.AS.MK-01, SK.AS.MK-09, SK.AS.MK-23 or SK.AS.MK-30). Registration info

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Are you wondering what increasingly scarce resources mean for the material culture of our present day? Are you surprised that as a result of digitalisation you hardly come into contact with some things anymore? Or are you interested in working with objects with a view to your future profession?
In the certificate programme "Object Competencies. Material Culture in the Sciences and Humanities" you will be introduced to dealing with historical objects and the cultural significance of materiality using the example of the academic collections of Göttingen University. You will learn about the interdisciplinary research field of "material culture studies" and about object cultures of the various disciplines using the examples of collecting, researching and exhibiting. For a later occupation in professional fields dedicated to cultural heritage or in collections, museums, archives, you will receive important basic competencies such as holistic thinking, mediation skills, teamwork skills, media skills or the ability to change perspectives, in addition to material knowledge.

• Work experience / practical section: You will complete an internship of at least four weeks or 120 hours workload during the lecture-free period in one of the collections of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, in the Centre for Collection Development of the University or in a comparable institution. The internship is completed in the module "SK.Phil-Obj.02: Berufsqualifizierendes Praktikum im Bereich Sammlungsmanagement" and is rounded off with an ungraded internship report including an evaluation interview.
• Special notes: Through the courses of the certificate, you will get to know various academic collections on the Göttingen campus. You will gain insight into the Forum Wissen as well as into the work of the Centre for Collection Development. Within the framework of the exhibition project, you will make your work accessible to a larger audience for the first time.
• Registration: Registration for or deregistration from a module or course within the certificate is done electronically in FlexNow/Stud.IP.

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Do you want to develop your communicative skills further and deepen your thematic focus? Do you want to communicate your knowledge in an understandable way? Would you like to work in a profession in which oral communication plays an important role, for example as a manager, team leader, consultant, lawyer, journalist or teacher? The “Oral Communication” certificate programme prepares you in theory and practice for adapting to a wide range of situations of oral interaction in a flexible manner. You will acquire substantial speaking skills, rhetorical skills and analytical knowledge. For this purpose, you can delve into one of three main study areas.

Focus on “rhetoric”: With the focus on rhetoric you will develop your skills in free speaking, discussion and reasoning. These rhetorical skills are the key to communicative success in many professional and public contexts.

• Special features: participation in the “rhetoric slam” as an examination
• Registration: Please register using FlexNow (in the week before each course application period) once you have successfully completed Core Module SK.AS.KK-30 (Communication Skills: Certification Course in Rhetoric: Free Speaking). Registration info.

Competency assignment: Communication skills, presentation skills, oral expression, teaching and mediation skills, ability to change perspectives, teamwork, advisory skills, social and leadership skills.

Focus on “voice – expression – effect”: In this certificate programme you will expand your skills with regard to the appropriate use of para- and extra-verbal means such as voice, speech and body expression, acquire knowledge of non-verbal forms of expression and acquire analytical skills in relation to their effects.

• Registration: Please register using FlexNow (in the week before each course application period) once you have successfully completed Core Module SK.AS.KK-21 (Introductory Module: Voice – Speech – Body Language) or SK.AS.KK-36 (Voice – Speech – Body Language in a Teaching and Study Context). Registration info

Competency assignment: Communication skills, oral expression skills, presentation skills, teaching and communication skills, ability to change perspectives, social skills.

Focus on “media speaking”: The focus on media speaking prepares you for oral communication in the media. You will acquire essential speaking skills, rhetorical skills and analytical knowledge. You will apply what you have learned as part of work placement with a radio station or with the campus media.

• Practical part: 2-week work placement with a radio station or with the campus media.
• Registration: Please register using FlexNow (in the week before each course application period) once you have successfully completed Core Module SK.AS.KK-21 (Introductory Module: Voice – Speech – Body Language), SK.AS.KK-23 (Communication Skills: Speaking with Conviction) or SK.AS.KK-36 (Voice – Speech – Body Language in a Teaching and Study Context). Registration info

Competency assignment: Communication skills, media skills, writing skills, oral skills, presentation skills, teaching and mediation skills, ability to change perspectives

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Whether technical documentation or marketing campaigns: texts of all kinds are very different in working life from academic writing at the university. In order to prepare students for vocational writing, the International Writing Lab offers the Professional Writing (ProText) certificate programme. On it you will learn how to produce multimedia pieces for online media, the choice of appropriate language and format, and the principles of writing journalistic and popular science articles as well as effective job applications. Part of the programme involves work experience in a field of your choice where you gather your experiences in text form and record them in a work experience report.

• Work experience / practical section: Incl. work experience
• Registration: You can register online for a module.

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Making healthy food appealing to children in a care home or financing a short film: these are just two of the projects brought to life by participants on the Project Management certificate programme. This is because, besides theoretical knowledge of the processes involved in a project, from planning through development to review, the programme also involves a real-life practical project for a non-profit-organisation. Project management is a fundamental skill required both on a degree course and in professional life. The skills you will learn can help you to organise your studies and increase your professional opportunities.

• Work experience / practical section: Incl. practical section
• Registration: Please register using FlexNow (in the week before each course application period) once you have successfully completed Core Module SK.AS.FK-08 (Leadership Skills: Introduction to Project Management). Registration info

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Do you want to be professionally prepared for the maintenance of social media channels and community management? In this certificate programme, you will learn how to prepare content in a way that is appropriate for your target audience. Furthermore you will learn how to use various channels strategically. In addition, the certificate will also enable you to critically reflect on the use of social media both as a productive and receptive part and in this way recognise manipulations, simplifications or misuse.

• Registration: You can register online for a module.

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You can learn how to give individual advice on the writing process and constructive feedback on texts on the Training for Writing Tutors: Writing in German as First Language certificate programme. The programme conveys the principles of teaching how to write, the psychology of giving advice, and research on writing. You will reflect on these aspects against the background of your own experience of writing and in view of their practical applications in various contexts. This will train your communicative and intercultural skills, empathy, ability to give feedback, reflectiveness and the capacity to see other points of view and rapidly understand subject material from other fields of expertise.

• Work experience / practical section: Incl. work experience
• Registration: You can register online for a module.

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You learn how to give multilingual writers individual advice on the writing process and constructive feedback on texts on the Training for Writing Tutors: Writing in Multilingual Contexts certificate programme. The programme conveys the principles of multilingual writing and offering multilingual advice. You will reflect on these aspects against the background of your own experience of writing and in view of their practical applications in various contexts. This will train your communicative and intercultural skills, empathy, ability to give feedback, reflectiveness and the capacity to see other points of view and rapidly understand subject material from other fields of expertise.

• Work experience / practical section: Incl. work experience
• Registration: You can register online for a module.

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The Social and Leadership Skills certificate programme is specifically designed to develop your social and leadership skills. The compulsory modules offer training in the principles of communication, team development and leadership. The elective modules include “Decision-making Skills” and “Diversity Management”. Applying and reflecting on what you will learn takes place within the framework of work experience or your own project.

• Work experience / practical section: Incl. practical section
• Registration: Please register using FlexNow (in the week before each course application period) once you have successfully completed Core Module SK.AS.FK-11 (Leadership Skills: Social and Leadership Skills I: Introduction to Communication Skills). Registration info

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With the certificate programme "Specialised and Literary Translation" you can develop an understanding of the complexity and heterogeneity of text types and the associated translation practice. It provides you with knowledge of the most important translational technical terms and key concepts as well as the ability to use the respective digital tools appropriately. You will get to know different data sources or applications and their characteristics and will be able to decide for which information purpose or task they are appropriate. Wherever possible, the courses also involve you into job-related translation projects, or let you conduct your own clearly delineated research question using translational methods in the final project module. The practical solution orientation of the tasks set is intended to increase your creativity, flexibility and ability to deal with conflicts and to contribute to your personal development. The certificate thus provides you with basic intercultural, culture-specific and media skills that are increasingly in demand in all professional fields, both within and outside of academia.
You can choose to take the certificate programme in French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic (legal language) and Persian.

• Work experience / practical section: Through the teaching staff and the supporting programme, students come into contact with renowned translators, publishers and institutions where they can complete internships on their own initiative.
• Special notes: Access requirement: Proof of language skills at level B2 of the European Framework of Reference in the respective target languages is mandatory. For non-German-native speakers an entry level of C1 must be presented.
• Registration: An application is possible once a year in September for the following winter semester. The application form can be found on the website of the certificate programme. If there are more applicants than places, priority will be given to students who are non-teaching students.

To certificate website regarding French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish

To certificate website regarding Arabic (legal language)

To certificate website regarding Persian

If you have a passion for the theatre and want to get involved behind the scenes, try your hand at dramatic composition, acting, lighting technology or public relations, then the Making Theatre: Practice and Presentation certificate programme and/or the Making Theatre: Vocational Profile offered by the Theater im OP could be right for you. You will learn to think in dramatic terms, try your hand at writing and speaking scenes, learn group and project work strategies, gain insights into cultural management and be involved in the planning and performance of theatrical projects.

• Work experience / practical section: Practical elements are integrated into the programme, e.g. helping out on theatrical projects. Some classes include excursions to theatrical festivals, etc.
• Special notes: The Making Theatre: Vocational Profile (18 C) is credited to the Making Theatre: Practice and Presentation (36 C) certificate.
• Registration: There are no special admission requirements for the programme. You register directly for the individual courses. Some modules require prior completion of another module.

To the Theater im OP website (in German)

The UNIcert® foreign language certificate is standardised evidence of proficiency in a foreign language that is also recognised outside Germany and is relevant to prospective academics. It is accepted as proof of language proficiency by many universities for study place applications as well as by the DAAD for foreign placements.
Language courses at ZESS follow the UNIcert® requirements: students rapidly acquire skills and knowledge designed to meet day-to-day requirements in universities and in professional life, and with them how to cope with the language and intercultural situations that arise in academia. Equal emphasis is placed on developing the four skills of reading comprehension, listening comprehension, writing and speaking.

• Special notes: The UNIcert® training at ZESS develops foreign language skills suitable for higher education to UNIcert® Basis and UNIcert® I – III levels. Successful completion of the relevant course is required to acquire the certificate. For UNIcert® III there is an additional certificate examination, which usually takes place each semester at the end of the intensive course phase.
• Registration: The registration requirements for language courses at ZESS apply (more information). After the course you apply for the certificate on the ZESS website in consultation with the ZESS office.

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Could you use a certificate that not only demonstrates your soft skills and intercultural competence for job applications but also expands your horizon and prepares you for your international career entree? The international certificate offers different possibilities. There are two focus areas to choose from: Mobility and Integration & Diversity. Each focus area consists of the components “Intercultural Competence Training” and “Intercultural Engagement/International Events”. Intercultural engagement offers a wide range of activities: you can be actively involved in the cultural programme Foyer International, form a multicultural academic writing partnership or become an integration tutor in your hall of residence.

• Special notes: Credits can be earned for some individual pieces of work (e.g. in intercultural skills trainings), otherwise Internationalisation Points (IP) are collected within the framework of the certificate.
• Registration: Via online registration form

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If you want to be involved in socio-political and educational issues in your future profession, the Additional Qualification Interculturality and Multilingualism / German as a Foreign and Second Language (ZIMD) - part of the area of key competencies - can prepare you for this. In this certificate programme, you will be, with a focus on interculturality and multilingualism, qualified for the teaching of German as a foreign and second language in heterogeneous learning groups as well as integrated in subject lessons. You can also opt to explore various fields of practice alongside the compulsory modules.
This additional qualification is aimed at students of all subjects and qualification levels.

• Work experience / practical section: : Seminar-related projects and practical studies module. As part of the seminar-related project, you will plan, independently conduct and evaluate a project in a real-life area of practice, drawing on the theoretical and methodical contexts presented in the seminar. The optional practical studies module SK.IKG-ZIMD.05 consisting of a preparatory seminar (2h per week ) and work rsp. teaching experience (120 x 45 min.) expands and deepens the knowledge and skills from the fundamental ZIMD modules and focuses on practical application and reflection in real-life areas of practice. In the practical studies module you can choose between (a) a general preparation and supervision for a wide scope of activities related to German as a Foreign Language (DaF) and German as a Second Language (DaZ) and (b) practical study projects qualifying students for specific areas related to language education and teaching of refugees.
• Special notes: The ZIMD certificate is recognised by the Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge (BAMF, Federal Office for Migration and Refugees) as equivalent to the (higher education) BAMF-Certificate German as a Second Language (28 credits for students of all fields of study rsp. 22 credits for students in pedagogical and language related studies).
• Registration: You can register online for a module (via Stud.IP).

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If you are a trainee teacher who is interested in giving multidisciplinary and/or bilingual lessons, then you need the Multidisciplinary Teaching certificate. It is designed for anyone who wants to teach social studies (history, politics/economics, geography), integrated natural sciences, teach a subject in English, or integrate Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into teaching.

• Work experience / practical section: Incl. work experience in a school, educational institute or other place of learning.
• Registration: Registration for the various courses is via Stud.IP. The certificate can be applied for from Lehramt PluS once all relevant focal courses for a certificate have been successfully completed.

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As a trainee teacher you can attend practical and vocational workshops and seminars as part of the Lehramt PluS certificate programme to develop individual skills all around the topic of school and thus prepare for everyday school life. You will tackle school-relevant subjects such as "learning democracy in school", "non-violent communication", "bullying intervention", "intercultural competence", "school and law" and much more.

• Work experience / practical section: Practical module with 6 credits
• Special notes: Certificate paths with different subject areas
• Registration: No registration necessary; registration for the seminars via Stud.IP

To Lehramt PLuS website (in German)

This certificate is primarily aimed at junior scientists gaining their first experiences in teaching in higher education. Participants will get to know the basic content and methods of teaching and learning in higher education as well as to enhance existing competencies. This will be achieved through practice-oriented and active-learning methods in interdisciplinary groups of no more than twelve participants.

• Work experience / practical section: Collegial discussions of practical experiences and sitting in on classes
• Registration: Via e-mail

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ETS Berlin in cooperation with the English Department offers the TOEFL ITPfor first-year students in the English Department who need proof of language proficiency to undertake English studies in Göttingen. This test assesses your listening and reading comprehension and your grammar.

• Special notes: The test costs approx. EUR 55
• Registration: Registration info

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