Some places lack boarding school places for trainees
There are not enough places in some Thuringian trainee residences. "From the point of view of individual school administrators we know, there are occasional capacity bottlenecks," said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education. However, this is not a widespread problem. In many other such boarding schools, there is enough space for most of the year. The occupancy figures are often a snapshot, he said.
In the Ministry of Education's answer to a minor question from FDP member of state parliament Thomas Kemmerich, it states that the state sees a need "at certain vocational schools" to increase the capacity of the dormitories available there. This applies in particular to vocational school locations where training courses are concentrated or supra-regional specialist classes have been formed.
According to the Ministry of Education, the halls of residence are run by local authorities or private organizations such as the Diakonisches Werk or the Internationaler Bund. Whether a dormitory is operated at a particular location is therefore at the discretion of the respective sponsor and not the state. According to the ministry spokesperson, no statistics are kept on how many boarding school places there are for trainees in Thuringia.
According to the state government, a federal-state program entitled "Young Housing" is to be used in the coming years to create more accommodation for trainees in Thuringia. A total of 18.8 million euros would be available to the Free State through this program, which could be used to build residential accommodation for both vocational school pupils and students.
So far, this money has not yet been used, said a spokesperson for the Thuringian Ministry of Science. "This is basically unproblematic because the funds are available up to and including 2027 and can be drawn down at any time." The Studierendenwerk Thüringen has already submitted applications to use funds from this funding program.
Despite the need for more boarding school places at certain vocational schools due to concentrated training courses or supra-regional specialist classes, many of these institutions already have sufficient living spaces for trainees throughout the year. Effective utilization of the funds from the "Young Housing" federal-state program could potentially provide additional educational living accommodations for both vocational school pupils and university students in Thuringia.
Source: www.dpa.com
