VHS Göttingen Osterode

VHS Göttingen Osterode gGmbH

Hauptgeschäftsstelle Göttingen

Bahnhofsallee 7
37081 Göttingen, Germany

Göttingen is a town of 120 000 inhabitants in the South of Lower Saxony in Germany. The town is famous for its university founded in 1734.

VHS Göttingen was initially the municipal adult education centre (and is still maintaining this character). It is now however registered as non-profit limited company, a step that was taken during a recent merger with the adult education centre of the neighbouring rural city of Osterode. Osterode is a city of about 22 000 inhabitants. Due to its geographical situation in the picturesque Harz mountains and its architectural heritage, Osterode is a centre of tourism. As a consequence, VHS Göttingen Osterode now covers both urban and rural areas, with the respective population and its social characteristics.

VHS Göttingen Osterode offers education and training in subjects such as

Foreign languages
German as foreign language (currently highly needed for refugees and other immigrants)
Cultural education, arts, literature
Health education
Vocational training / continuing training
IT
Basic education and literacy, including second-chance courses for completion of primary and basic secondary education

The Basic Skills department of VHS Göttingen Osterode targets both adults with a low level of reading and writing skills, and institutions working with low-skilled people (e.g. job centres, homes for disabled, and companies employing low-skilled people).

VHS Göttingen Osterode has got a distinctive profile for basic skills development:

We have been organising reading and writing classes for over 25 years.
Since 2012 VHS Göttingen has been responsible for the “Center for Basic Education” in this town, one of 8 such centres in Lower Saxony (see: http://rgz-nds.de).
We offer workshops of how to identify people with low reading and writing skills.
We have an innovative, close cooperation with the Göttingen city library focussing people with low reading skills. In March 2017 we organised a joint workshop “How to welcome people with low reading skills to the library” which was attended by over 20 directors and employees of German public libraries. Focus: What should the staff know about people with low reading skills, which easy-to-read books should be offered? What campaigns can be made?
In cooperation with a local newspaper, we have been publishing a monthly supplement to that paper in “easy-to-read language” since 2015. This is also available online (http://vhs-goettingen.de/index.php?id=381)
In 2015 the VHS transferred the Swiss model “Go” to Göttingen. “Go-Niedersachsen” aimed at upskilling employed adults with low level of literacy in training events that were organised on the job. This included developing basic English courses strictly along the workplace needs of employees in the health sector, especially in accident and emergency units.
From 2012 to 2015, VHS Göttingen was responsible for the German federal project KOMPASS focusing basic training on the job. Publications are available at

http://www.vhs-kompass.de/download/

as well as

http://www.alphabund.de/1733.php (only 3b.1 and3b.2)

The final conference “Challenge Nursing Care – Who should? Who is allowed? Who is doing it?“ was held on September 3rd and 4th, 2015 in Berlin.