Our technical school is located in the centre of Bremen, in the north of Germany. It was founded in the year 2000. With over 100 teachers and technical instructors we teach more than 2500 students in lots of different educational courses. These include

• pre-vocational full-time courses,

• part-time vocational-qualification in a dual apprenticeship,

• full-time study preparition courses,

• advanced training courses.

The dual apprenticeships are divided in

• electrical engineering,

• metal and machinery technology,

• traffic and automotive engineering.

The faculty of traffic and automotive engineering is devided in the departments of

• bicycle mechanics

• aircraft mechanics

• bodywork mechanics

• car mechanics

• train drivers

The car mechanics are taught in five to six classes of about 25 to 30 students each per year. As we are teaching in blocks (see course plan 18/19) of about three to four weeks, there are always two classes of each year present. The remaining time, the students are working in their companies, where they receive their practical training. This principle is called "Duale Ausbildung" (dual training) in Germany.

We are teaching our car mechanic students with eleven teachers and two assisting master students at the moment. Our department uses seven regular classrooms, two laboratories (one with a gasoline direct injection model and a common rail diesel model and one for electronics like CAN-BUS and vehicle lights), a computer room and a garage for tuition. The garage has two lifts (one including wheel alignment), two functional model cars (a Volkswagen Tiguan and a Volkswagen Scirocco) and several engines for timing belt changing and measurement exercises. The garage is also used by other departments for several tuitions and projects.

The curriculum for car mechanics is devided into fourteen Lernfelder (learning areas) (see pages 9+10). In the first and second year of apprenticeship, the Lernfelder 1-4 (first year) and 5-8 (second year) are taught linearly by two teaching teams. In the third and fourth year (the apprenticeship has a regular duration of 3.5 years), the Lernfelder 9-14 are taught parallely by seperate teachers. In the curriculum the Lernfelder are explained in more detail on pages 10-39. The students can choose from five specialisations: P=passenger car technology, N=commercial vehicle technology, M=motorcycle technology, S=systems and high-voltage technology, and K=bodywork techology.

The students' performances are mainly examined in class tests in school. But also other forms like posters, presentations, portfolios or wall newspapers are used. In the second year the students take an intermediate exam (theoretical and practical exam) and after 3.5 years they take their final exam (theoretical and practical exam) at the Chamber of Crafts.