In a recent survey, the German Youth Institute (DeutschesJugendinstitut) found that at least 80,000 young people in Germany live far from any educational institution, without any income or social services, almost illegally. If the frame is extended to include young people suffering a serious risk of exclusion, the figure is as high as 540,000!
Faced with this finding, the nonprofit GüstrowerBildungshause.V (Güstrow education home) set the objective in 2007 of helping them take their lives in their hands, integrate and move back into mainstream society, and to act responsibly. To do this, it focuses on the education and training of these young people, because the job market suffers from a widening gap between corporate requirements and their qualifications.
Professional and social integration
In the area of Rostock (near Güstrow) 27,000 persons are unemployed today. Among them, 11.1% are aged between 15 and 25, a high rate that represents its greatest challenge for GüstrowerBildungshaus. They often lack social skills, such as motivation, patience, capacity to resolve conflicts, dependability, punctuality, or even sincerity, added to which are failings in mathematics and even in German. In cooperation with the labor administration of the towns of Bad Doberan, Güstrow and Rostock, and with other partners, the Gustrow education home is developing the Future Workshop project, whose main objective is to federate the integration of these young people, who risk sliding into criminality.
In 2014, the nonprofit is planning the construction of a drakkar, a Viking ship, in six phases, starting with the creation of a family atmosphere, the establishment of rituals, the acquisition of basic group behavior, professional integration through corporate training programs, and the construction of the ship. The final objective is for the young people to ultimately start vocational training or find a job. Once the drakkar is completed, it will be transferred to a partner nonprofit of GüstrowerBildungshaus, specialized in international youth exchanges.
The foundation has been approached to participate in the purchase of the ship's building materials.