Berlin-Transfer

Initial situation

Analphabetism in Europe: Up to 20% of the EU’s 255 million citizens have only rudimentary reading, writing, and math skills—they are functional illiterates. They thus lack basic requirements necessary to finding skilled employment, career development and participating in the cultural, civic and political life of the country in which they now live—or in which they wish to live with their children in the future.

According to a 2008 study, more than 164,000 people are illiterate in Berlin—most of them young people from immigrant families. Although their families have often lived in the city for three generations, neither they nor their families have become integrated in German society. They grow up as bilingual functional illiterates. They have no prospects on the labor market and career opportunities are not open to them, because today even in the easiest jobs, employees are expected to have a good command of the German language and to be able to read, write, and do simple math.

To overcome functional illiteracy, in particular in this target group, and to improve the quality of vocational education in this area, the PROSON GmbH is managing the pilot project “Interactive Center of Excellence—Literacy, basic education, and German as a Foreign Language in blended learning.” The project is supported by the vocational qualification unit of the Berlin Senate Department of Integration, Labour and Social Issues and the European Social Fund.

Interactive Center of Excellence—Literacy, basic education, and German as a Foreign Language in blended learning

The goals of the project are, on the one hand, improving the job chances of low-skilled young adults and teens—from migrant and non-migrant families—by overcoming functional illiteracy and, on the other hand, improving the teaching quality of those who train them.