PEARL Project Team

Prof. Dr Annette Ostendorf

Project Leader

Annette Ostendorf has been teaching Business Education at the University of Innsbruck since 2006.

Her research focuses in particular on the challenges and opportunities presented by the integration of practical and theoretical phases in vocational training programmes. Work placements are therefore a key area of focus.

Since 2008, she has also headed the Department of Organisation and Learning at the Faculty of Business and Management.

Dr Bettina Dimai

In addition to her role as a research associate on the PEARL project, Dr Bettina Dimai works as an independent consultant specialising in development and change processes, and as a lecturer at both university and non-university educational institutions.

As a long-standing research associate at the Department of Organisation and Learning, she completed her PhD in 2011 on the topic ‘Innovation catches on: A search for clues using actor-network theory’ under the supervision of Prof. Annette Ostendorf and Prof. Andrea Hemetsberger at the University of Innsbruck.

In addition to her academic and practice-oriented interest in the learning and development processes of individuals and organisations, Ms Dimai also focuses on the discourse on quality within educational organisations.

Mag. Christin Ehrlich

After completing her A-levels, Christin Ehrlich undertook an apprenticeship as a bank clerk. She then went on to study Economics and Business Education at the University of Innsbruck. Her bachelor’s thesis in the field of marketing was entitled ‘Translating Brand Meaning into Assortment, Services and Multisensory Experiences’, and she completed her master’s degree in 2014 with a thesis on ‘Learning Transfer in Corporate Continuing Education from the Employees’ Perspective’.

Since April 2014, she has been working as a university assistant and PhD candidate at the Department of Organisation and Learning in the field of Business Education. Her teaching focuses on corporate training management. Her academic research interests centre primarily on learning processes in corporate settings.

Alongside her academic work at the University of Innsbruck, she works in the Personnel Department of a large Bavarian cooperative bank. Her responsibilities there include personnel administration and Staff Development.

Mag. Hannes Hautz, MSc

Hannes Hautz completed his Master’s degree in Business Education at the University of Innsbruck in early 2015. In his Master’s thesis, he examined the concept of quality in vocational education and training from a discourse-analytical perspective. Prior to this, he completed a Diplom degree in Business Administration, specialising in International Taxation and Auditing, also at the University of Innsbruck.

In 2014, Mr Hautz worked as a student research assistant at the Department of Organisation and Learning as part of the project ‘Quality in Vocational Education and Training – A Dispositional Analysis’, led by Dr Michael Thoma. He has been part of the PEARL project team since March 2015. Alongside his academic work, he is active in the informal education sector at Jugendinfo Tirol, where his roles include acting as a consultant on gender-sensitive career guidance and safe internet use.