Many parents in the district of Ebersberg can sing a song about it: the search for a daycare place for their own children is sometimes more than difficult. The reason is not the lack of facilities, but rather the lack of skilled workers to look after the youngsters there appropriately. And: This problem has been growing in the Ebersberg region for years. Now the market town of Kirchseeon has initiated a project to counteract the shortage of teachers in the entire district: a specialist academy for social pedagogy. In order to be able to realize this project locally, however, the other communities must also help.
The Munich regional association of the Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe is already on board, which is to take over the sponsorship of the vocational school. This partnership is the result of a working group in Kirchseeon’s town hall, which has dealt intensively with the subject of childcare in recent months, as Mayor Jan Paeplow (CSU) said when presenting the project. “Kirchseeon and all other municipalities are struggling with the shortage of skilled workers,” said the mayor. That’s why they wanted to find out where the shoe pinched particularly – and how the community could solve the problems.
The lack of educators is a problem for society as a whole
This resulted in the cooperation with the Johanniter, who are no strangers to the market community. In autumn 2020, the aid association took over the sponsorship of the newly built children’s home on Spannleitenberg. Now the regional association in Kirchseeon is also supposed to recruit and train specialists for other institutions in the district. “We not only train for the Johanniter, but for all providers,” said Thomas Kohns from the federal office on Monday evening in the Kirchseeon municipal council. After all, the shortage of skilled workers does not only affect the market community, but is an issue for society as a whole, added Mayor Paeplow.
The technical academy is to be located in the premises of the St. Zeno vocational training center.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
For this reason, there is already a very specific concept for the academy. The vocational school is to be located on around 1,300 square meters in the rooms of the St. Zeno vocational training center. There, the prospective educators should go through a three- or four-year apprenticeship – and this is quite challenging. “To work as a specialist in a day care center, there is a complex training phase,” said Johanniter regional board member Martin Swoboda when presenting the concept.
Thanks to dual training, the trainees should “stick” in the district
According to this, there are two ways to obtain the title of state-approved educator in Kirchseeon: Apprentices with a secondary school leaving certificate first go through a one-year socio-pedagogical introductory seminar before they complete two years of theoretical school and finally a year of internship. Applicants with a (technical) high school diploma in Bavaria also have the option of dual training, the so-called Optiprax model. According to Swoboda, this is what they want to focus on in Kirchseeon. Right from the start, the prospective educators work two days a week with appropriate remuneration in a daycare center in the district, the remaining three days are intended for theoretical training in the Kirchseeon technical academy.
The community and sponsors expect a lot from this model: “Anyone who notices that this day-care center is fun will stay there even after the end of their training,” said Thomas Kohns. The specialists should therefore be tied to the district in the long term and not – as has often been the case – migrate to Munich. The Johanniter want to find people who are interested in training to become specialists in the district schools in particular, with which a close cooperation network is to be established.
Such a thing also seems necessary, because the project is quite ambitious, as both the sponsor and the municipality admit: The training in Kirchseeon is to start as early as September of this year – initially with a four-year theory class. A year later, the first three-year-old Optiprax cohort will start. The Johanniter plan with 25 students per class. By the year 2026, a total of 125 trainees are to attend the school, and then the first graduating class with 50 state-approved educators will be available for the labor market in the region. However, the planners do not see any competition with the technical school for child care, which is to be located at the planned vocational school in Grafing. Rather, the Kirchseeoner Fachakademie is to be understood as a continuing offer.
The Johanniter cannot bear the costs alone
So the plans sound very reasonable – but there is a big catch: the financing. The Johanniter as an aid organization cannot possibly handle this alone, as their representatives have now made clear in the municipal council. “We have the expertise, but not the financial resources,” said regional board member Martin Swoboda. The vocational school can only obtain state recognition – and the associated financial support from the Free State – after five years at the academy, i.e. from September 2026 at the earliest. The costs for the previous years must be borne by the institution itself. Spread over the years, these amount to a total of around 1.3 million euros.
In turn, the market town of Kirchseeon, which is rather tight on cash anyway, cannot raise this sum without help. That is why we are now relying on the support of other municipalities. “We have to spread the topic widely and get as many people as possible on board,” said Mayor Paeplow. He has already received positive signals from District Administrator Robert Niedergesäß (CSU), but nothing is ready for a decision yet. In the coming week, Paeplow and the Johanniter want to convince the other heads of town hall of the idea at the mayor’s meeting. However, there is not much time left: If the plan is to be adhered to starting in autumn, the application for the school must be submitted to the government of Upper Bavaria by the end of February.