Despite the corona lockdown: AMS courses are still on site – Coronavirus Vienna

At the Corona shutdown, a general ban on events applies across Austria and everyone must be home from 8 p.m. On this occasion, the nearly 65,000 participants in the Public Employment Service (AMS) training are exempt from this requirement in the corresponding government regulations. “It is the experiences of spring that are now leading to a different approach,” AMS board member Johannes Kopf said on the ORF Ö1 radio show “Morgenjournal” on Friday.

“That’s something we’ve learned from the first lockdown, where we had to lock our courses entirely, so to speak, if you just lose many, many socially weaker people through online offerings,” the AMS chief explained. While the upper tiers in local schools switched to distance education for November, AMS continues to teach primarily on-site despite the extremely high number of new corona infections across Austria. This not only applies to advanced machine training, but also to language courses. AMS course providers are encouraged to switch to online lessons, but only when it makes sense and does not jeopardize educational success.

According to the daily “Kurier” (Friday edition), AMS trainers report that many of the unemployed are not equipped with computer equipment and cannot simply be sent home. There is a lack of loan equipment and poor living conditions. Coaches also report problems with face-to-face teaching, where it is sometimes difficult to increase protective measures, such as distance rules or Plexiglass separations. Also, there are coaches absent due to illness or quarantine who simply cannot be replaced. “Everything is laborious, they are no longer real lessons,” said one of the instructors.

The night curfew from 8:00 p.m., where night courses are still held, also generates uncertainty. In order to identify themselves at a police check at night, course participants must have a certificate of attendance with them, recommends AMS.

“In coordination with the main commission of the National Council, in a balance of interests between safeguarding health and safeguarding the opportunities of the underprivileged, unlike the first confinement, the Minister of Health decided that AMS training, meetings for professional training necessary and advanced training is the correct regulation, from which the ban on events is exempt, that is, it can take place, “Kopf said in the radio interview.

The head of AMS referred to a series of studies according to which “disadvantaged people in particular cannot benefit from online offers.” It is not only a matter of equipment, “we are currently experiencing this in our language courses, for example, that migrants have poor technical equipment”, but also of this quiet environment when it comes to studying at home. “So here it was just decided that these courses could be carried out.”

The AMS has put in place its own monitoring system to have a very clear picture of the number of infections and to be able to react immediately to the courses, Kopf stressed.

AMS spokeswoman Beate Sprenger also pointed out to the “Kurier” that all educational institutions had been instructed to ensure strict compliance with safety measures such as minimum distance, mouth and nasal protection, disinfectants, etc. Whenever possible, according to Covid-19 regulation, it should be switched to eLearning. The decision on this is left to the training providers. “It doesn’t make sense to have rigid rules here,” Sprenger said.

“We maintain all AMS measures in face-to-face teaching,” said Jan Weinrich, a spokesperson for bfi Vienna, a major AMS training partner, according to the newspaper report. There is a very rigid hygiene concept for all training courses that must be carried out on site. “I can’t learn to weld virtually.”