What is PUSCH and what is it doing in Babenhausen?

Anyone who has heard the word “PUSCH class” in recent years may not have understood the abbreviation – or (unfortunately) associated it negatively with the image of a “rest ramp” where only problem children are cared for who already have their fail to finish. Incidentally, PUSCH is the abbreviation for practice and school and is a support program that basically serves to reduce and prevent early school leaving. It supports young people in obtaining their secondary school leaving certificate and avoiding dropping out of school.

So far so good.

The young people should be intensively prepared for the transition from school to work and actively supported. This is to be achieved through individually tailored measures such as the targeted promotion of language skills. Company internships, which are completed parallel to school attendance, are intended to enable the pupils to establish intensive contacts with the companies. The young people are not only accompanied by socio-pedagogical specialists (PUSCH coaches), there are also, in relative terms, “more teachers” available for the PUSCH classes. That’s the dry theory.

In practice, the Babenhausen Open School is the only school in the district that offers such a support program and anyone who wants to take part has to apply for a place in the PUSCH class. The most important thing here is the young people’s will and drive. They should want to actively use the opportunity offered to them. Anyone who wants special support should show a willingness to achieve more than the other students in their year. Sufficient knowledge of spoken and written German is a prerequisite for being able to work successfully in school and in the company. Then you can start. If you want to take part, you first have to arrange an internship to find out whether the “chemistry is right” and whether you can imagine working together. In addition to an application form and the last copy of the certificate, a written recommendation from the class conference is also required, which is followed by a pre-selection and, ideally, an invitation to a personal interview (with legal guardians). Once this hurdle in the application process has been overcome, nothing stands in the way of participation in a PUSCH class.

Of course, all this information does not contribute to polishing the image of a rest ramp. But if you then look at what the average grade of this PUSCH class looked like last year and that even students from the PUSCH class graduated with an average grade of 1.3, then you can definitely admit that the intensive care and coaching of the young people are bearing fruit. In the next issues of the city magazine we will keep you informed about current projects of the PUSCH class and thus keep you up to date on how a phoenix can rise from the ashes.