UNIVERSITÄT
Services for families
Contact
Information & Advisory Service
Telephone: +43 463 2700 9216
E-Mail: bronwen [dot] arbeiter [at] aau [dot] at
Flexible Childcare Service
Telephone: +43 664 839 8852
E-Mail: familienservice [at] aau [dot] at
Profile and key responsibilities
Family Services is the university’s advisory and information facility for all questions related to improving the compatibility of caring responsibilities and work or studying. The Family Services team provides information about care, assists with care arrangements, offers guidance and provides care facilities on-site
Awards
2021 award for Carinthia’s most family-friendly enterprise!
“This award is a sign of recognition and appreciation for the family-friendly path we’ve been following within the university for many years.” (Bronwen Arbeiter-Weyrer)
“university and family” quality award
Since 2011 Klagenfurt University has held the state seal of approval for its family-friendly policies. This is the result of successful auditing and certification through the “university and family” audit. The university is currently in the 4th audit cycle with an external auditor.
Opening hours
Mondays to Thursdays: 8 am to 6 pm
Fridays: 8 am to 4 pm
The familyservice is closed on official public holidays.
During the vacations when no courses are being taught, opening times are reduced although the facility may be kept open if there is sufficient demand (as shown by user surveys).
Im Februar/during Easter Holiday:
Mondays to Fridays: 8 am to 2 pm
The Familiyservice offers:
Friendly high-quality childcare
Information & Advisory Service
Audit hochschuleundfamilie
Additional Services
Friendly high-quality childcare
The availability of reliable, high quality, fun and caring childcare is a must for all students and university personnel who want to combine studying or working at the AAU with handling family responsibilities. A limited number of places are also open to non-university families (subject to availability).
The AAU Familienservice offers:
Flexible childcare service
Daycare, bookable on an hourly basis, is available on campus in the Familienservice Kinderzimmer in Lakeside Park. Our friendly and caring team of childcare professionals supported by student trainees provide flexible by-the-hour daycare following a schedule tailored to individual requirements.
Daycare is available for girls and boys aged from 8 weeks to 12 years. Our team support and encourage children in a stimulating and fun environment while doing our very best to respect every individual child’s needs and interests.
Familienservice Daycare Centre – Opening Hours
Mondays to Thursdays: 8 am to 6 pm
Fridays: 8 am to 4 pm
The Familienservice Kinderzimmer Daycare Centre is closed on official holidays. On days which are not official holidays but no classes are held, the centre may be open in response to demand.
Daycare fees
Tariff 1: Students, administrative staff
€ 2,50/child for each additional child: € 1,50
Tariff 2: Academic staff
€ 3,50/child for each additional child: € 2,50
Tariff 3: Externals
€ 4,50/child for each additional child: € 3,50
Getting-to-know-days
To ensure a smooth start to their daycare experience, children should visit the Kinderzimmer a couple of times accompanied by a parent or guardian before they start to stay on their own. Trial visits are free-of-charge. Children can visit the centre on the scheduled Trial Days shortly before the start of each semester (late September for the Winter Semester, late February for the Summer Semester) or at any time during the semester at times agreed with the Famlienservice team. The getting-to-know-you visits help the children become acquainted with the centre and allow parents to raise any open questions. It is very important for us that both the children and parents/guardians can get to know the centre in a relaxed atmosphere.
Our Concept
At the Familienservice Kinderzimmer we see ourselves as a daycare centre in which…
- children are accompanied and supported in their all-round development in a mixed-age group setting in ways appropriate to their own individual life experience, backgrounds, developmental stage and learning style;
- children experience life as part of a group – valuable preparation for kindergarten;
- brothers and sisters of different ages from the same family can be cared for together and have a sense of growing up in a larger “family” group;
- children who don’t have brothers and sisters can benefit specially much from contact with other children, thus having the opportunity for early socialisation with peers;
- children feel safe and in a secure and friendly environment where they have the chance to experience trust, attention, respect, and appreciation, laying a foundation for developing a sense of community values such as respecting the personalities of others;
- dialogue and active exchange with parents in an atmosphere of mutual trust are a major focus in our educational work – an essential requirement given the age range of the children cared for at the centre (from 8 weeks).
Summer Daycare - August
Every August the AAU offers five weeks of summer daycare (bookable by the week, approximate dates 30th July to 31st August) and open to children from 4 to 12 years of age. Children can attend on a full-day or half-day (morning only) basis. Full-day and half-day summer daycare can be booked either with or without lunch.
Programme
The summer daycare programme is very varied and lots of fun. Most mornings there are excursions and field trips. After lunch (which is optional and costs extra, children can alternatively bring their own lunch) the kids have the chance to do creative arts and crafts activities or take part in fun physical activities and games. But if they prefer to enjoy a quiet time, they can take it easy in the Chill-Out Corner or play games with members of the daycare team.
Timing
Half day: Mondays to Fridays 7.30 am – 1 pm
Whole day: Mondays to Thursdays 7.30 am – 4.30 pm, Fridays 7.30am – 2 pm
Place
AAU Familienservice, Lakeside Park Building B02a, Klagenfurt
Fees
tariff 1 (for staff and students):
1 week half day € 75,00
1 week whole day € 95,00
tariff 2 (for externals)
1 week half day € 95,00
1 week whole day € 115,00
Full-day and half-day summer daycare can be booked either with or without lunch (€ 25,00/week).
The cost of excursions and craft materials are included in the daycare fee.
Registering
Please register here: Sommerferienbetreuung 2023 (31 July 2023 – 1 September 2023): Overview · Conferences @ Universität Klagenfurt (Indico) (aau.at)
Three weeks can be booked per child – for each addtional week we put you on the waiting list. Any cancellations after June 1st incur a cancellation charge of 50% of the daycare fee. Cancellations of lunch bookings must be made one week in advance.
Holiday Daycare (Autumn, Semester, Easter)
“Ferien am Campus”
During public Holidays (Autumn Holidays, semester break, Easter Holidays) the AAU offers daycare to children from 6 to 10 years of age.
Programme
The daycare programme is very varied and lots of fun. We offer various workshops and excursions during this time (IT-workshops, university tours, baking and handicraft courses, museum visits, etc.).
Timing
Mondays to Fridays 8.00 am – 2 pm (excluding public holidays)
Place
AAU Familienservice, Lakeside Park Building B02a, Klagenfurt
Fees
The fee for the daycare will be published separately for each offer!
The cost of excursions, and craft materials and lunch are included in the daycare fee.
Registering
As the Familienservice is a central service facility of the Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt, priority for the limited number of daycare places available is given to the children of AAU students and staff. The registration form for daycare is to be sent by the parents by email to familienservice [at] aau [dot] at.
Current offer:
Currently no offer available.
Babysitter Referral Service
The AAU Familienservice provides a babysitter referral service to make it easier for families to find qualified babysitters ouside of regular daycare hours. Our team of babysitters are all members of the Famlienservice daycare team (qualified professionals and student trainees).
Procedure for booking a babysitter
To book a babysitter, information about the required babysitting times and place as well as the number and ages of the children to be looked after is communicated to the Familienservice by phone or by email. The inquiry will then be directed to the members of the Familienservice babysitter team. Íf a team member is available for babysitting at the required time, the babysitter will contact the parents in person. Parents and babysitter then finalize the individual babysitting arrangements..
Babysitter fees
Babysitting is a private arrangement between the parents and the babysitter. Babysitting costs €10 per hour.
How do we define “family” at the AAU?
At the AAU we understand the idea of “family“ very broadly, going beyond the traditional “nuclear family” of father, mother and their children. Over the last two decades and more, the public debate on what constitutes a family has come up with much more inclusive concepts. For us, the idea of “family” is very diverse, taking in many different lifestyles and family configurations, including single-parent families, patchwork families, father-father-child/ren families, mother-mother-child/ren families, and encompassing family members of all ages.
Information & Advisory Service
Topic: Childcare
The AAU Familienservice offers individualized support to all students and staff to help with the vital family-related decision-making needed to handle challenges such as managing the return to work following parental leave. Support is also provided on request with choosing a childcare facility and with the application process, especially in more difficult situations such as trying to find a childcare place in the middle of the year. Planning support is also on offer for those who need to provide care for sick or elderly family members.
The Familienservice is the in-house point of contact for all students and staff with family responsibilities. If assistance is requested, we help find childcare solutions for all AAU personnel – from visiting guest professors and newly appointed staff and researchers to all longer term employees, whether administrative personnel, academic, teaching and research staff, or project team members.. Support is also offered in resolving everyday family-related problems and work-life balance issues.
A particular challenge is “closing the childcare gap” during transitional periods in the middle of the kindergarten/school year e.g. when parental leave ends or for mid-year appointments to positions. On top of this, immediate support is made available to parents in emergency situations such as when the regular carer is not available.
Information Exchange
- Up-to-date information is available about local crèches, children’s groups, kindergartens and after-school clubs (pricing, availability of places etc).
Advisory service
- Advice on legal questions related to parental leave, statutory maternity leave etc.
- Advice about financial benefits, e.g. childcare allowance, part-time parental leave, family allowance, tax deductibles.
- Advice on all issues relating to children, childcare, pregnancy, and parental leave, with consultations also available during pregnancy and during parental leave.
- Planning support for starting work / returning to the workplace.
Referrals
- Help with finding childcare places in daycare facilities.
Do you want to make an appointment?
Please contact us: familienservice [at] aau [dot] at
Information & Advisory Service
Topic: Caregiving for family members
With increasing life expectancy and demographic change, there is a strong probability that staff and sometimes students will find themselves required to take on responsibility for providing care for sick or elderly family members. Reconciling the demands of caregiving with studying or pursuing a university career is always difficult in terms of time management and represents a major physical and psychological stress factor.
For this reason we support university members in this difficult situation with information and practical measures to facilitate the reconciliation of working and studying with the challenges of caregiving. We strive to offer:
- Advice and organisational support
- Information sessions with professional inputs open to all members of the AAU university community
- Referrals to professional support services
Do you want to make an appointment?
Please contact us: familienservice [at] aau [dot] at
The AAU – a family-friendly university
Since 2011 the AAU Klagenfurt has been recognized as a certified family-friendly university following the successful completion of the „hochschuleundfamile“ audit.
The AAU is proud to have gained this accreditation. At the AAU we constantly strive to serve as a role model as a family-friendly organisation.
The AAU is increasingly establishing a profile both nationally and internationally as an innovative family-friendly institution both as a place to study and for pursuing a university career. The goal of the on-going audit process – the AAU undertakes a re-audit every three years – is to identify problem areas and work out strategies and packages of measures to improve the situation in such key university fields as study organisation, teaching and research, working time management, qualification and leadership, time-out management, health and employability, services for families, childcare provision, supporting caregivers in reconciling care responsibilities with career pressures, financial engagement, as well as the all-important organisational policymaking and communication. Since progress is steadily being made in each of these areas, the volume of tasks to be accomplished in order to meet the constantly rising standards is also constantly on the rise.
Areas of focus for the audit cycle
The following Action Fields have been selected as areas of focus in the current audit cycle:
Action Field # 1: Studying and Academic Careers 1.1. Study organization 1.2. Research and teaching
Action Field # 2: Framework conditions for working at the university 2.1. Workplace flexibility
Action Field # 3: HR development 3.1. Qualification and leadership 3.2. Time-out management
Action Cluster # 4: Benefits & Services 4.1. Services for families 4.2. Childcare 4.3. Support for caregivers 4.4. Financial support
Action Cluster # 5: Communication & organizational culture 5.1. Information and communication policies
family-friendly measures at the AAU
Lots of family-friendly measures are already in place at Klagenfurt University. The following is a selection of some of the things on offer:
- Childcare contact point for university students and staff
- Caregiver contact point for university staff
- Support in finding childcare places
- Advisory services regarding family-related financial, legal and other issues
- Staff representative with responsibility for promoting family-friendly measures
- Own childcare premises: indoors (80 m2) and garden (800 m2)
- Year-round affordable by-the-hour childcare.
- Summer vacation programs for schoolkids – places also available on days when schools are closed.
- Educational activities and workshops for kids.
- Babysitting and childminding referral service
- Childcare provision for in-service training events
- Knowledge exchange events for kids and young people such as “Long Night of the Sciences” and Informatics Camps
- Support services for caregivers
- hochschuleundfamilie audit with certification as a family-friendly university
- Active member in the UniKid-UniCare Austria network and in the organization “Enterprises for Families”
- Inter-university cooperations, regional cooperations such as Klagenfurt Family Forum, international presence in conferences and workshops
- Surveys to establish current need for childcare places at the university, and surveys to find out caregivers’ wishes, priorities, and problems to allow job demands and in-family care needs to be more easily met
- Inclusion of family commitments in employee career development interviews
- Info folders for new parents and welcome packages for new-baby arrivals in staff families
- Family-friendly infrastructure: parking lot spaces reserved for families; baby changing facilities at various points around the university; quiet room for expecting and nursing mothers
- Parents & Kids-campus networking events
- Joint organizers of Austria-wide Action Day to promote Paternity Leave – active in the working group to create image Paternity Leave promotion films in 2019 and 2020
- Knowledge exchange workshops and events,
- Training centre for students of educational sciences on internship programs
- Family and care themes integrated into kick-off meetings for new employees and inservice training programs.
Other things the university does to make it easier to combine studying/working and family responsibilities include:
- Flexible working hours with our flextime model
- Dual Career Service Point
- Paid parental and caregiver leaver
- Timing of classes, examinations and meetings to take caregiver needs into account
- Back-to-work support and mentoring following maternity and paternity leave
- Support for employees currently on maternity/paternity leave
- Replacement personnel for staff on parental or caregiver leave
- Part-time work also possible in management positions
- In-service training open on an equalized basis for part-time and full-time employees
Family-friendly infrastructure
The AAU has already introduced a wide range of infrastructure improvements to make the university campus more family-friendly for parents and children. These include:
Diaper-changing facilities and quiet spaces
Throughout the campus there are baby-changing facilities, including some accessible to fathers/ men. The installation of additional changing tables is planned. Near Lecture Hall A (HS A) there is also a Quiet Room which can be used for baby-changing, nursing, and resting (next to the Ladies WC).
Here you will find diaper-changing facilities: Sterneckstraße C.0.08, Mensa M.1.25, M.1.26a, M.0.14, North-Wing N.1.51e, N.31.d/f, Ostgebäude O.0.06, Musil-Haus R-114, South-Wing S.0.24, USI U.0.02, Vorstufengebäude V.1.09, V.1.10
Family parking spaces
Two specially marked family parking spaces are available in the Car Park West with further family parking spaces planned. These spaces are reserved for families with young children who need access to the university.
Quiet room for pregnant women
As is required by law, pregnant employees must have access to a quiet room for lying down and taking a short rest. For this purpose pregnant women are granted access to Room S.0.24 in the South Wing.
Medical room
The AAU has a medical room for the use of employees. This room is used by the university occupational-health doctor, Dr. Ursula Stollberger, for medical check-ups, personal consultations, vaccination programmes and other occupational health measures.
Networking
Parents and others involved with childcare responsibilities are very welcome to participate in networking events. The Familienservice has organized many networking events for families over the years such as parent-child cafés, parent-child picnics, parent-child craft workshops, and parties at special times of the year, e.g. Nikolofeier in Advent.
“Vereinbarkeitsbeauftragte”
Member of staff with responsibility for issues of reconciliation of work/study and family responsibilities
The Vereinbarkeitsbeauftragte is the member of staff appointed by the Rector to advise university management on measures to make it easier to combine studying and university careers with family responsibilities. This member of staff has a fixed place in the university’s organisational plan and works to support the AAU in its endeavours to consolidate and extend its pioneering role as an organisation committed to promoting family-friendly policies in the wider context of being an institution which promotes equality of opportunity and equal treatment. As such, the university will continue in future to implement measures to promote the compatibility of family responsibilities with studying and working at the AAU and make the necessary resources available for this purpose.
Iris Gerbera Fischer
Consultation hours on request
Telefon: 0463 2700 2728
Raum: N.1.51 Hauptgebäude, Nord Trakt Ost,
Ebene 1
Mag. Rachel Köberl, M.A.
retired but for the family service she is available as an expert
