Dortmund, FABIDO andExperiences concerning the Assist-Project

Oslo, January 31, 2008

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City of Dortmund

588,000 inhabitants Located in the Ruhr area in the

State of North Rhine-Westphalia Formerly industrial region New industries Highest quote of children among

top ten German cities Districts with very different social

structure

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Westfalenpark and Phoenix

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Westfalenpark and Phoenix (Detail)

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The City’s social structure

Inhabitants aged up to 18 years

Unemployment rate

Social welfare recipients Living space by inhabitant

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High public awareness of education and children‘s day care

Caused by the PISA-Schock (end of 2001): “Abysmal marks for German students“ (FAZ)rude awakening and high public attention on education and pre-school-education

Defined by federal law in 2004, by local statues in 2005 and 2006 and state law in 2007 (Kibiz)

Nevertheless decreasing (or at least unchanging) resources for education

Increasing demands regarding the kindergarten's tasks German language training, foreign language

training child protection programs documentation of developmental milestones

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FABIDO—facts and figures

Part of the municipal authority of the City of Dortmund Running 108 kindergartens and day-care centres

(40 % of all) 1,550 employees 7,700 children

550 child-minders caring for 900 children (Tagesmütter) Kinder-Citytreff within the centre of Dortmund caring for

children up to three hours while parents are shopping or taking care of other things

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FABIDO—facts and figures

Certified as family-friendly enterprise Process “Aging within profession” Rebuilt structure: new regional directors

Leading and guiding about 12 day care centres

Consulting in pedagogical matters

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Recent History of FABIDO

Since 1970 every year opening three new day-care centresPeak in the mid-nineties: legal claim to a kindergarten space beginning with the age of three

2005 FABIDO founded as proprietary enterprise run by the City of Dortmund

December 2004

Kinder-Citytreff founded

Since 2006 Conversion of spaces for 1,000 children 6 to 14 years into spaces for Children aged 4 month to 6 years

2006+2007 Rapidly increasing spaces at child-minders 2008ff Rebuilding according to Kibiz (new state law)

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Kibiz—New law concerning on financing and organizing structures

Slightly different group types concerning the

financial structure

New distribution of resources, economically more

efficient

Reorganisation of staff and finances lead to

challenges for our organisation

Creation of new places for children up to 3

Better method to adapt to the parent’s needs

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Types of our day care centres

108 day care centres, varying from 20 to140 children and 2 to 30 employees

Different groups within our institutions Mainstream kindergarten groups

(3 to 6 years) Full-time kindergarten groups

(3 to 6 years) Young age-integrated groups

(2 months to 6 years)

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Group types:Mainstream Kindergarten

Part-time care:7 am to 2 pm or 7 am to 12:30 pm and 2 to 4 pm

3 years – 6 years 25 children per group In every group:

1 qualified educator0,5 qualified assistant

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Full-time care: 7 am to 5 pm 3 – 6 years 20 children per group In every group:

1 qualified educator, 1 childcare worker

Group types:Full-time Kindergarten

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Full-time care: 7 am to 5 pm 2 months – 6 years 15 children per group In every group

2 qualified educators1 assistant or trainee

Group types:Young age-integrated group

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Group types: Others

To be discontinued: Extended age-integrated groups (3 to

14 years) After-school care group (6 to 14 years)

Additional care by childminders beginning at 6 am, ending at 7.30 pm

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Structure of Employees

8 % social pedagogues 62 % qualified educators 22 % qualified assistants 8 % kitchen staff In addition: trainees other assistants (secondary labour market) 96 % female 44 % part-time employees 12 % temporary engagement Average age: 40 years 500 child-minders with different qualifications

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ProfessionsPreschool assistant—apprenticeship

Requirement: 9 years of school attendance

Contains basic pedagogical and nursery topics

2 years

Final examination: certified Kinderpflegerin

Enables to work within children‘s homes and

hospitals, within family welfare work and family

aide

In kindergartens and day care centres as

supporting staff

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ProfessionsQualified Educator—apprenticeship

Requirement: 10 years of school attendance

Contains educational and pedagogical topics

5 years

Final examination: certified Erzieherin

Enables to work within day care centres, open

day school and youth work

In kindergartens and day care centres: within

groups as well as a principal, acting on their own

responsibility

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ProfessionsSocial pedagogues—study

Requirement: 12 years of school attendance

Studies at the university of applied science

4 years

degree Diplom-Sozialpädagogin

Enables to work as principals of kindergartens

and day care centres

Organising both, pedagogical and administrative

daily schedule

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extra personnel in integrative groups (handicapped and non-handicapped children)

trainee in groups without qualified assistant

relief staff supporting as substitutes in case of illness etc.

ProfessionsAdditional Staff

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one principal in each institution

in institutions with more than 3 groups or 2 full-time

groups the principal does not work in the group

additionally one assistant principal

principal can be qualified educator as well as social

pedagogue

Leadership in Day Care Centres

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only provided in day care centres and kindergartens

which offer full-time care

47 kitchens in total

number of employees depends on number of

children (minimum 1 person, maximum 4)

Head of kitchen: either 3 years study (dietetics) or 3

years training at vocational training college

70 unskilled kitchen workers

each meal is freshly cooked, no ready-made meal

Kitchen staff

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Increasing due to the parent‘s increasing demands upon

the staff

low salary = low recognition

96 % female

4 % male, usually working as principals

Reformation of the professional training of qualified

educators

Changing political view: from raising to educating

No graduates from university in the child care groups

Social status of child care professions

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Private and public child care centres

Different bodies running 284 day care centres:

57 Protestant church

54 Katholik church

1 Jewish Community

11 AWO, German Red Cross and others

52 Parents‘ Clubs

108 Municipality (FABIDO)

0 private companies

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FABIDO—Further education program

Annual further education program for the whole staff

A total of about 70 courses, mostly 16 participants

Principals are responsible for motivating the staff to take part in

FABIDO provides a special amount for every district (depedent on number of employees) for inidviual further training courses day care centres can agree upon on their own

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Special qualifications (e.g how to talk about difficult topics with parents)

Development of children (e.g. special needs of age-integrated groups, education of children, how to deal with deviant behaviour and aggression)

Movement, music, media education Language (e.g. acquisition of language, linguistic

development, speech disorder) Natural environment and natural science (e.g.

exploratory experiences Intercultural competence

Further education program Main Topics I

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Common education of handicapped and non-handicapped children

Health education, nutrition and hygiene (especially for kitchen staff), first aid

Computer applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint

Special trainings for our principals (a total of 6 days, dealing with e.g. their personal leadership ideas and different types of leadership, communication, different kinds of dialogues, how to deal with problems)

Some courses are mandatory such as hygiene, first aid, other training is optional

Further education program Main Topics II

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Topics can vary according to political demands (more places for children under 3 may create other/new demands for educational trainings, national focus on special education topics like science or mathematics, support of native language/second language acquisition

Engagement of external as well as internal course instructors

At minimum, each staff member can attend an in-service training course every one to two years regardless of their initial professional training

All costs are covered by FABIDO

Further education program Facts and figures I

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A wide range of further training courses offered by

the municipality‘s department of personnel

development (e.g. time management, working

techniques, communication and rhetoric,

behaviour/interaction, leadership, health promotion,

financial management)

In-service training

All employees can take part

Further education program Facts and figures II

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Further education program Curriculum work in day care centres

2 days per year for curriculum work

during working hours

for each kindergarten and day care centre

the whole team agrees upon one item to be

discussed (e.g. religious customs, Integration,

language acquisition)

intensive work on pedagogical matters and

childcare opportunities

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FABIDOMain challenges and efforts

Transformation into a proprietary enterprise run

by the City of Dortmund

Rebuilding the internal structure (district

directors), workshop with the leadership and

representatives of the staff (about 200 people)

Workshop with the whole staff to define the

further FABIDO-strategy (about 1,200 people)

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FABIDOMain challenges and efforts

Implementing a new structure for the support of

language acquisition (about 600 children at risk)

Future legal claim on kindergarten places for children

of 2 years, new places are needed for this group

Closing the child care groups for school children

(about 1,000 places), to be continued within open day

schools

Increasing expectations of the parents for qualified

education und preparation for school

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Concerning the Assist project:Some aspects we already applied

intensive training supported by in-house consultants (train the trainer)

about 10 employees (kindergarten leaders as well as pre-school-teachers) running vocational trainings developed on their own

language trainings dances relaxing for children special demands of 2-years-children in

groups aged 3 to 6

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Concerning the Assist project: What we are expecting in taking part

Detailed look into needs of our staff/into our structure

Dynamic impulses for our corporate culture Experiences of the effect of whole team training

on the corporate culture Team development Holistic way of education Strengthening the idea of lifelong learning Gaining knowledge about other countries and

their educational system/day care centres/further education program

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Concerning the Assist project: Most useful topics I

You are part of an organisation No topic of our further training

program nor in the apprenticeshipLearning for live

Recognizing the necessity of lifelong learning

improving the motivation to take part in further education programs

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Concerning the Assist project: Most useful topics II

Communication and interactive competence + The difficult conversation

Basic needs of our staff, should be trained as often as possible

High demand for our courses dealing with these topics

Very useful, because it belongs to the attitude towards the

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Concerning the Assist project: Most useful topics III

Values and attitudes

Important all, concerning

the main basis (human rights)

the elaborated municipality’s attitude towards

families and children,

Consequently the teacher’s attitude towards

parents and children

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Concerning the Assist project: Some questions

Teachers come from both, pedagogical and

administrative parts of FABIDO

Possibility to teach more than 25 or 30 employees

within the test phase

ContactCity of DortmundFABIDOJens WoelkiOstwall 64, D-44141 DortmundFone +49-231-5023661Fax +49-231-5029557jwoelki@stadtdo.de