The "Roadmap courses" pilot project , Date: 2018.11.28, format: Article, area: Integration

The "Roadmap courses" provide asylum-seekers with useful information in their respective mother tongue for everyday life, as well as the essentials of cultural coexistence in Germany, immediately after their arrival in the country.

The Federal Office has been piloting this mother-tongue orientation service for asylum-seekers in Bavaria's AnkER facilities since October 2018.

What are "Roadmap courses"?

The concept of the "Roadmap courses" comes from Saxony, where the courses have been carried out since 2015 with funding from the Land. The course aims to provide asylum-seekers with useful information about everyday life after their arrival in the country, as well as the essentials of cultural coexistence in Germany, regardless of whether they have prospects to remain. It is comprised of 15 lesson units, dealing with the following five topics:

• Familiarisation with the course/welcome/getting-to-know-you,
• Initial orientation and education (life in the AnkER facility, the asylum system, education in Germany),
• Coexistence and work in Germany (values, norms, rights, laws, work),
• Local orientation and mobility, and
• Healthcare and opportunities for self-learning (health and the environment, communication, opportunities for self-learning, opportunities, motivations).

Given that asylum-seekers do not yet have the requisite knowledge of Germany when they have just arrived in Germany, the "Roadmap course" is taught in the respective mother tongues. This enables complex contents to be discussed such as gender equality without the course attendees reaching the limits of their ability to understand and express themselves. These mother-tongue courses thus complement the initial orientation courses provided by the Federation, which are given in German.

Who conducts the "Roadmap courses"?

The courses are taught by cultural mediators who have a migration background. They know the course attendees' mother tongue and culture, and they themselves have personal experience of migration. This enables them to build bridges between the cultures, at the same time as providing a positive example by sharing their life stories.

The cultural mediators are prepared for their work in the "Roadmap courses" by attending a course that has been specially developed for them. In order to be admitted to attend the course, they must have completed vocational training in a specific subject area or be graduates. They must also have good German (min. B1, preferably B2/C1). Cultural mediators must also have an expanded certificate of good conduct and a valid work permit.

Cultural mediators for the pilot project are recruited and trained as well as placed with the course providers in the AnkER facilities via the Bavarian Association of Adult Education Centres (Volkshochschulverband e.V. - bvv). The Association has now put together a pool of roughly 100 such mediators.

How long is the pilot project set to run?

The "Roadmap courses" are to be tested in the pilot project until 31 December 2019. This will allow the concept to be adjusted to the requirements as they arise in the AnkER facilities and to be regularly evaluated. The results of this evaluation will form the basis of the decision on whether the pilot scheme is to be expanded to include other locations outside of Bavaria.