First Stepping Stone in a New Path 2012

Following the construction of a staircase at the Eshbal Kibbutz boarding school in Sakhnin in 2011, this year’s ten trainee carpenters and electricians aged between 18 and 24 from Berlin are building a classroom in Karmiel with around 24 young Israelis. They are being accompanied by an eight-strong team of educational experts from Israel, who will have taken part in intensive preparations in Berlin beforehand for the group trip - a shared journey in all senses of the word. For it’s about much more than just a construction project: the young prospective construction workers will be encountering Israel’s multicultural society for the first time, while the young Israelis, the majority of whom come from Ethiopian immigrant families, will be able to collect some initial professional and training experience. Yet the benefits to both sides go way beyond just those experienced by the young people involved, with the project above all representing a coming together of trainee professionals in Germany and Israel and thus of two different training systems and professional cultures within the construction sector. Knowledge transfer and the exchange of experience stand side by side here – experience referring both to professional perspectives as well as how young people who start off at a disadvantage in both society and the job market can be integrated in cultural and socio-economic terms. Thus, all in all, there are some big goals attached to the building of a small classroom: it’s not just about promoting intercultural skills and commitment and responsibility on both sides, but also fostering professional qualifications, the creation of bilateral networks between NGOs and state training facilities and innovation training methods and content.  

“First Stepping Stone in a New Path” is a construction and education project organised by the Bildungsvereins Bautechnik in collaboration with the Israeli youth organisation HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed. The project involves twelve professional training experts from Israel and Germany, ten trainee carpenters and electricians in their 2nd and 3rd year of training at the Knobelsdorff-Schule – Oberstufenzentrum Bautechnik I in Berlin as well as around 24 young Israelis from socio-economically deprived families. The project is taking place from 20.06 – 31.10.2012 and has a three-week project trip at its core, in addition to the creation of building sketches and seminar plans, group preparation workshops in Germany and Israel and professional and educational training sessions for the educational team from Israel in Berlin. The project concludes with an evaluation and the production of a video documentary.