Chemnitz Adult Education Centre - Winter semester 2018

The new course programme for the 2018 winter semester at Chemnitz Adult Education Centre will be published online on Monday, 25 June. From then on, all courses can be booked at www.vhs-chemnitz.de. Course bookings can also be made at the service counter in the Adult Education Centre from this date. The printed booklet - with a new look - will be available to take away from 13 August 2018 at the adult education centre, the citizen service points and all known locations.

In the new winter semester, the adult education centre is once again offering a varied programme: learning foreign languages, excursions and city walks, craft techniques and an exhibition of works, inclusive courses, events on current civil society topics and a further training series for teachers.

The adult education centre's course instructors come from almost 30 countries. "In our language courses, you not only learn vocabulary and grammar, but also a lot about the culture, customs and traditions as well as the zeitgeist of other countries," says Grit Bochmann, Director of Chemnitz Adult Education Centre. New to the programme this autumn are a basic Hungarian course and refresher courses in English and Polish. Furthermore, the course format "Für Unterwegs" ("On the road") will be taken up again in the coming semester in Spanish, English, French and Italian.

The foreign language programmes will be supplemented by lectures and excursions. For example, Chemnitz residents can attend a lecture on the baroque cities of Sicily or be whisked away to Namibia with an illustrated lecture. Several educational excursions are planned, for example to the cultural history of Lusatia or the Saale-Elster district.

To mark the "100 years of Bauhaus" anniversary, an excursion will take you through the most important Bauhaus buildings in Dessau. This day trip will visit the so-called Masters' Houses as well as the homes and studios of Bauhaus artists Gropius, Moholy-Nagy, Feininger, Muche, Schlemmer, Kandinsky and Klee. The Bauhaus also left its mark in Chemnitz. The new course programme offers a visit to the Marianne Brandt House in Chemnitz. The life and work of Marianne Brandt are presented by means of photos and replicas. A city walk to Chemnitz's urban Bauhaus ensembles rounds off the course programme to mark the centenary of the Bauhaus.

The city walks course format will be continued in the 2018 winter semester with a tour of the Hilbersdorf and Helbersdorf-Kapellenberg districts. In addition to cultural education in architecture, the courses on old craft techniques in particular will be expanded. One additional course each in the areas of wood sculpting, tailoring, floristry and weaving will be available to course participants. Furthermore, three courses on embossing and pressing can be booked for the first time. A new course on upcycling clothing is also planned.
A highlight of the winter semester is the exhibition of work from the design courses of the last two semesters. The exhibition shows a selection of different creative works from tailoring, clay and ceramics, painting and design courses. A fashion show on fashion accessories and hats will be accompanied by an extensive exhibition of course works in the corridors of the adult education centre on the fourth and fifth floors of the TIETZ.

The adult education centre is also offering new courses and events for people with and without disabilities in autumn 2018. For example, the "Kamera Sensibel" film series will continue with a feature film about young people in psychiatry. Three documentaries on the topics of vegetative state, young people with obesity and border violations against people with disabilities will also be shown at the adult education centre. In addition to film screenings, a tailoring course for blind people, an inclusive Braille course and several city walks for people with and without disabilities are planned. All inclusive programmes focus on shared experiences and exchanges on current social issues.

The adult education centre also addresses current issues in civil society with various individual events and course series. For example, the 2019 election year will be addressed in the new course programme. The information series on the Basic Law, case law and the German electoral system in January and February 2019 prepares Chemnitz residents for the elections with facts and opportunities to exchange views. Course participants can attend lectures followed by discussions on flight and immigration. In addition, the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will be thematised as part of an event on the life of the Sinti and Roma in Saxony and an exhibition.

Further training for educators is also a focal point of the winter semester. The new course series "Kind und Co." (Child and Co.) addresses educational topics from the kindergarten and primary school sector: the animal world in Chemnitz rivers, new literature for children and young people and English language education. In addition to the main topics, practical tips for imparting knowledge are given and the strengthening of curiosity and the joy of learning are placed at the centre of the course series.

The Chemnitz Adult Education Centre's programme booklet for the 2018 winter semester will be published after the summer holidays. "The course brochure will be an eye-catcher," says Grit Bochmann happily, "because it has a fresh and modern look." The Adult Education Centre's programme booklet is now square. It is clearly laid out and the courses on offer are easy to find.

Chemnitz Adult Education Centre has been in existence since 1919 and is celebrating its centenary in 2019. The adult education centre is located in the heart of the city of Chemnitz, right next to the central bus stop at Moritzstraße 20. As the largest municipal education provider, the adult education centre occupies the fourth and fifth floors of the TIETZ with a total of 33 ultra-modern and mostly multifunctional course rooms. The adult education centre employs 16 members of staff and around 400 teachers from over 30 countries. More than 15,500 learners from 68 countries have taken part in around 35,000 lessons. (Survey from 2017)