Freiburg: Vocational schools in Freiburg are made fit for the future – Comprehensive renovation, modernization and specialization – Establishment of competence centers with their own specialist identity

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The vocational schools in Freiburg are facing a fundamental modernization and restructuring. Some buildings are in need of structural renovation, and investments must also be made in equipment. But instead of tackling many individual construction sites, the city of Freiburg has developed an overall concept that makes the eight vocational schools in the sponsorship of the city sustainable. In addition to structural renovation and future-proof equipment, the main focus is on further development of the content. The schools are to be developed into competence centers, each with their own specialist identities, which prepare young people for the professional world of tomorrow. To this end, some of the existing training courses are to be redistributed to schools. This creates future-oriented centers, for example in the areas of health, nutrition, green professions, the environment or technology. The restructuring and modernization should take account of the dynamic change in the professional world and think about digitization.

“The basis for our concept is the consideration of what constitutes quality of education in the future. We want to take a bigger step forward in further development. With this innovation boost, we will reposition the vocational schools in a future-oriented manner for the coming decades, ”says Freiburg’s Education Mayor Gerda Stuchlik.

The city is ready to invest for this goal. The further development should cost a rather low three-digit million amount. The money is well spent. The future viability of vocational training depends to a large extent on the quality of education and training and on a regionally accessible offer. And vocational training in the city’s vocational schools makes a significant contribution to strengthening and securing Freiburg as a business location in the long term. This is one of the reasons why schools need modern equipment in order to keep up with the technological progress of the dual partner companies.

The competence centers:
The eight vocational schools currently have a partially heterogeneous composition of offers at the individual school locations. Profiles can only be seen sporadically. That should change with the further development into competence centers. The creation of such centers results in synergies in the use of specialist rooms, in the specific equipment and in the teaching staff. The following table shows the city’s considerations as to which school should receive which subject identity.

The health campus:
An important and first competence center is to be created as a cooperation between several partners. The University of Freiburg (Medical Faculty), the University Clinic and the City of Freiburg are currently working on the concept for a joint health campus. All institutions want to concentrate their training offers there and partially reorganize them. On the site of the current university children’s clinic, the “new” Edith Stein School is to be located for this campus alongside the university / clinic facilities. The express goal is close cooperation between the various training providers. This would result from the joint conception and use of spaces as well as joint learning and study centers. In this way, on the one hand, scarce and expensive building space could be saved. In addition, such a cooperation brings a future-oriented equipment and training quality across all training levels. A feasibility study will be presented soon. Construction of the health campus could begin in 2024/2025 at the earliest, depending on the results of the feasibility study, an architectural competition and the development plan procedure.

The considerations for the health campus show how the concept of competence centers works. So far, health-related professions have been trained at several vocational schools. These are to be separated from these schools and merged into a new unit, the future Edith Stein School. Such a training beacon project would be perceived beyond the region. Health and nursing professions are attractively positioned, an important effect in view of the increasing social demand. This positive external effect can mean a significant location advantage in recruiting young people for all medical professions.

Communication:
The further development of the schools means cooperation with many partners. The subject of communication and cooperation is correspondingly important – from the individual schools to the neighboring districts to the state government. The exchange with the regional council of Freiburg (RP) and with the vocational schools of Freiburg has already started and will be intensively continued next year in order to jointly achieve the goal of maintaining all locations and making them fit for the future. Common practice is also the close exchange with the surrounding districts of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald and Emmendingen as well as the RP.

Outlook:
The future package for vocational schools is not to be implemented overnight, but to be seen as a medium-term process. Ten to 15 years can be used as a time frame. The planning and realization of the health campus should be the prelude to the future concept and the renovation concept of all vocational schools in the city.

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