Learning about skilled trades companies and trying their hand at dog training - all this at the age of just 10 or 11.
Around 15 Year 5 pupils from Wilhelmsburg took part in a career guidance project called "Weekend School" and which originally comes from the Netherlands. Next year, the weekend school which was launched as a pilot project with two classes - that is to say with at least 30 participants - is seeking to become firmly established in this part of the city. The programme is targeted at pupils from socially poorer districts. Participants do not have to pay anything as the project is funded from donations. The Williamsburg District School was the first school throughout Germany to participate in the programme.
This is how the weekend school concept works: Around every two weeks - on a Saturday morning in each case - professionals including doctors, journalists, artists, scientists, and skilled tradespeople offer to provide the children participating with an insight into their everyday work. The location for the event is either at the participating school or, for example, a company or a workshop.
Excursions, such as recently in the role of photo reporters to the Island Park, are an important element of the programme. The project is seeking to motivate children, in particularly those who have little scope for stimulation at home, and to encourage them when setting goals for themselves in life. "My own 30 years of work have shown me that you should always be courageous, curious and willing to learn in order to discover the world and live out your own dreams," says Monica Klein, Chair of the Weekend School in Germany.
The programme is presented each year in the autumn to schools in the district. On average, between one to three pupils from each class take part. "Many people just do not believe that pupils choose to go to school for an extra day in the week," explains Klein. She says she can tell quite a different story.
Success, after all, does speak for itself. Experience from the Netherlands shows that around two-thirds of young participants stay until the end. In January 2019 the project in Wilhelmsburg will enter its second round - and this time for a period of two and a half years.