The positive effects of the OeAD’s more than 30 years of cultural education activities in this field testify to this – since 1989 apprentices from all over Austria have taken advantage of moments of cultural education in projects offered as an add-on to the dual training system. In doing so they develop important key skills that equip them better for their everyday working lives.
The initial idea, implemented in 1989 by “Team Eigenart/Museum”, was a simple one: to introduce the apprentices, who are often only confronted with job-specific, i.e. “useful” information during their training, to a place that is “foreign” to them – the museum; the positive effects for those involved are all the more varied: finding solutions to problems in an unfamiliar context, developing their own solution strategies through experimentation or experiencing their own creativity and communication skills through critical and unorthodox thinking – all these are skills that are in demand in working life, i.e. key skills. And these are addressed in cultural education –as evaluations of the following more than thirty years of project work in a wide variety of cultural fields in the series “K3 projects. Cultural Education with Apprentices” (which is the current title) show. Today the projects offered range from performative to visual arts, from high culture to everyday cultural aspects. And it goes without saying that the exploration of media and film plays a major role in our digital age: (Digital) media skills thus become an enriching element in the education and training.
The value of a holistic education is nowadays also reflected in the training curricula: After the general education elements in the vocational school curricula have been complemented over the years with subjects such as “German and communication”, “political education” or a living foreign language the subject “project internship” provides further room – also for enhancing the vocational school lessons with elements of cultural education.
in the newly published magazine “Ladestation K3” you can read about how the K3 teams, who are active throughout Austria, implement cultural education in a quality way. You can download the magazine at www.oead.at/k3 or order a printed copy.
Author: Roman Schanner (OeAD coordinator K3 projects)
Figures:
40 per cent of the Austrians complete a dual apprenticeship after school. Cultural education is then no longer on the curriculum for them. The K3 Projects series aims to counteract this by developing and offering cultural education modules specifically for vocational schools and training companies. 26,318 apprentices from 2340 companies and 158 vocational schools have taken part in these so far.