Youth | Education

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About 13,771 kids go to school in Gera. 13 primary schools, 7 secondary schools, 1 comprehensive school, 4 grammar schools, 4 special schools, 1 creative school and 1 special school that provides life skills (the last two have free sponsors), and 5 vocational schools hold their doors open for them. Gera has also an Art and Music School owned by the city. Gera’s Volkshochschule (school for adult education) has been renovated and modernised for a total of 1.5 million Euros; those expenses were covered by the European Urban-Development Programme URBAN, also by Thüringen’s ministry of economy and by the city government. The school offers more than 500 courses in six faculties, which are extensively used by about 5,700 students.

The practice-oriented course programmes at the Berufsakademie (a cooperative-education institution) offering the branches Social Service, Rehabilitation, engineering science, Service Economy, Commerce as well as Business Informatics and Information Technology attract more and more young students. 630 students are enrolled at the moment. The modern campus is located in the city district Tinz.

The new building cost about 10.2 million Euros. On 1st October 2007, the Private SRH Fachhochschule für Gesundheit (a health-sector company training apprentices) opened with four fields of study: Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Interdisciplinary Early Intervention and Medical Pedagogy, and had 85 students at the beginning. More than 40 differently sponsored institutions offer exemplary training- and further-education options (sponsors were, for instance, the vocational institution Berufliches Bildungszentrum Gera gGmbH, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the Handwerkskammer (meaning Chamber of Crafts) in East Thüringen as well as the Christian educational institution (Christliches Jugenddorf).

After school, the kids can go to youth clubs, meeting points, associations and organisations, which offer abundant leisure activities. The modern UCI cinema world, the Hofwiesenbad swimming bath, and modern sports facilities are some more alternatives. The Tonhalle (a youth and sports club) that lies very centrally in the city was financed by the EU and Gera through the URBAN programme; its renovation cost 3.37 million Euros and the club is now where generations come together.