Erich Meleis is not in a good mood today. At lunch, the 50-year-old man, who is paralyzed on one side, keeps falling off his fork. He’s coughing, he doesn’t want to be fed. How can you help him? Anyone who is training to be a nursing specialist in Waren in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania will meet Erich again and again. The life-size nursing manikin is part of a large family of ten, with which schoolchildren regularly practice in the “SimLab”, the simulation laboratory.
They are observed by trainers and fellow students through a mirror pane and monitors. In this way, the prospective nurses learn to make decisions on their own. If it’s the wrong one, all the better. Then the class thinks together how this mistake can be avoided when dealing with real people.
The care simulation laboratory is one of several learning rooms at the Regional Vocational Training Center Müritz that were designed by the trainers and are constantly being further developed. 26 professions from nine areas can be learned here, in the district of Mecklenburgische Seenplatte, from cook to media designer, from carpenter to butcher. There is also a specialist high school with three branches; In a pre-vocational year, the Hauptschule certificate can be obtained. 1423 students between the ages of 15 and 53 are currently studying at the two locations in Waren and Malchin.
It’s about the right mix of new and old
Since this Wednesday, the Müritz Education Center can call itself Germany’s best school. Federal Minister of Education Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) presented the German School Prize to headmistress Birgit Köpnick in Berlin. It has been awarded by the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Heidehof Foundation since 2006. This is only the second time that the main prize, which is worth 100,000 euros, has gone to a vocational school.
Above all, the jury praised the “high learning effectiveness” of the award winner. The experts attribute the fact that young people and adults learn more and better at the Regional Vocational Training Center in Müritz to the “didactic annual planning” of the school, among other things. That means: The teachers meet regularly, they develop and think about the internal school curriculum and its implementation based on the given framework curricula, explains headmistress Köpnick a few days before in a video call: Are our students achieving what we want to teach them? What new content and technologies are needed and how can we make them accessible?
The school would like to train for the “job market of the future”, which is important to Köpnick. A popular phrase, because: Who wouldn’t want that? However, at the Müritz training center, the question arises again and again as to what skills will be needed in the various professions in the years to come. Representatives from the school regularly visit local businesses to learn what is important to them. When prioritizing the content of the training, they strive for the right mix of new and old. Prospective carpenters, for example, are trained on the CNC milling machine, a machine tool that is controlled by a computer – even if the training company does not yet have such a thing. Of course, they also work on the workbench.
The trainees learn on modern machines at the training center in Müritz, here in the field of wood technology.
(Photo: RBB Müritz)
How knowledge can be conveyed effectively is the second important question. On the one hand, as practically as possible, especially for young people who have had bad experiences at school up to now. In the pre-vocational year, for example, modules are taught that are called “Christmas” or “New Apartment” and include several subjects. Anyone who plans and prepares a celebratory meal or thinks about how many square meters of wall paint they need has in the end hardly noticed how much they had to calculate for it.
On the other hand, students should learn as independently as possible. The 71 teachers see themselves less as knowledge brokers than as learning companions. Mistakes are not only tolerated, but welcomed, “this is the only way for the students to be able to act with confidence in their future profession,” explains Köpnick. What also resonates: Young people are not only to be trained here for a profession, but – if necessary – also to be enabled for an independent life in everyday life. The jury observed a “very appreciative and empathetic interaction” in the school.
Many ideas were initially met with skepticism
That all of this works so well cannot be taken for granted. There is a long and sometimes bumpy road behind the Regional Vocational Training Center in Müritz. In the mid-nineties, the number of students fell, and several vocational schools were combined into the two locations. Köpnick came to Waren in 2009, it’s her first job as headmistress. “I’m very open to ideas,” says the 59-year-old. “I enjoy trying something new.” Even if it often takes a lot of staying power to implement these ideas.
Quality management, mandatory feedback from the trainees and among colleagues, the changeover to the didactic annual plan – many things were met with skepticism at first, some things were tackled too quickly and only worked on the second try. Ultimately, however, the willingness of everyone involved to constantly question and develop themselves has paid off. Birgit Köpnick was already very happy about the nomination for the German School Award – because it creates “visibility for the vocational schools and their complex tasks”. The prize money is to flow primarily into student projects.
And Erich Meleis? Despite all the joy about the award, the future nurses have to make sure that he sits up when he eats and is not left alone. Choking can be fatal to the patient.