The European Photonics CAReer LAunch Path

ended

Europe faces a situation in which the photonics industry is growing and needs more well-prepared professionals to support its growth, leadership and innovation potential. Addressing this pressing need requires engaging all photonics stakeholders to increase the visibility of the outstanding professional opportunities of photonics and provide the future workforce with tools to increase their employability. CARLA aims to create a new, rigorous and tested instrument to address this need at the source. CARLA will develop a model for European photonics career camp –a reproducible 2-day intense, multi-format event– that 1) gets coordinated input from all stakeholders, 2) encourages STEM university students, PhD students and young postdocs to pursue a career in photonics and 3) can be replicated by other organisations. CARLA will create a robust, competitive and sustainable career camp that will serve as a ready-to-replicate tool, which will be tested through 11 editions implemented during the project. It will incorporate the dimensions of industry, academia, innovation,entrepreneurship, and better employability, putting special attention to empower gender diversity, both within the camps and in the future photonics workforce. CARLA will realize this strong coordinated instrument by using a multidimensional strategy that integrates design, implementation, evaluation and sustainability. CARLA will work hand-in-hand through working groups with all the stakeholders in the design of the camps. It will organize 11 editions of the camp at the Pan-European level, in 10 different countries. It will assess the methodology and scalability of the camp, and evaluate its impact in the short, mid and long-term. Sustainability will be ensured through the engagement of influencers and multipliers, and develop a comprehensive handbook to facilitate replication. Furthermore, CARLA will produce an Empowering Gender Diversity guide with the lessons obtained during the project.