Despite Corona, many private providers of continuing vocational training can continue to teach to some extent – but there are limits.
FREIBURG. At the same time, learning something about HR management, retraining as an office worker or training in big data analysis – all this and more is offered by private Freiburg institutions for further training. However, due to Corona, these seminars are no longer running in groups on site. Instead, lecturers and participants sit alone at home in front of their computers. Teaching and learning takes place on the Internet. Thanks to the rapid changeover, the industry is getting away with a black eye.
Around 80 providers work in Freiburg and in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald for professional qualifications. Most of them are united in the “Network Training”. They all had to change their usual way of working because of corona protection.
“It takes some getting used to not being able to face his students personally,” says Marco Wölfle, professor and part of the scientific management at the Administrative and Business Academy (VWA). He has just taught statistics online. “It works well, but it is different from classroom instruction.” You have to make sure that everything is understood much more often.
500 students at the locations in Freiburg, Offenburg, Lörrach and Villingen-Schwenningen take advantage of the courses offered by the non-profit education provider, for example in business administration or digitization management, which have been running exclusively online for weeks. This also applies to the seminar area, in which 4000 people participate annually, mostly part-time. Some are in short-time work and use idle.
The changeover also worked for other providers, says Luise Jenner, head of the regional office at “Netzwerk Fortbildung”. “From the feedback, I know that content is quickly being converted into online formats in order to continue working.”
But there are limits. The Vatter training center continued the commercial retraining online with the help of “Microsoft teams”.
Migrants have to pause for now
But with the funded German courses and vocational training for people with a migration background, that’s not possible, says Managing Director Dominik Vatter. “Your knowledge of German is too small for distance learning and the participants also have no suitable equipment.” You pause. If courses are canceled, there is no money from the employment agency. Even those of the 25 honorary staff who are now not working go away empty-handed. The Vatter training center has ten permanent employees and is currently about 65 percent full.
In the short term, the International Academic and Vocational Academy (ISBA) has completely switched to online teaching with 250 students, 20 permanent employees and 50 freelance lecturers. “The changeover was not technically difficult, but was very complex in terms of organization and personnel,” says Christine Golombek from ISBA.
The Haufe Academy, which offers seminars nationwide and has 400 employees – 350 of them at the Freiburg location, as well as around 1,500 freelance trainers and speakers – informed thousands of participants by telephone about the interruption of classroom instruction. “Many customers use the opportunity to rebook for later appointments free of charge,” explains Haufe spokeswoman Kristina Mellert. Some areas of the academy are in short-time work.
The small “ISW Business School” with four permanent and five freelancers experienced a major challenge. “Our teachers tried out a lot which platform is suitable for e-learning”, says ISW boss Heike Floß.
The IHK training center, meanwhile, has already begun to switch back to on-site offers, namely “semi-virtual”, explains Roswitha Mühl, who heads the training center with 200 courses a year and around 5000 course participants. Because of the minimum distance, the lecturer is in a room with part of the group, from where the lessons are transferred to the neighboring room. “The lecturer can switch between the rooms.
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