New special education course - excellent career prospects

The profession of special needs education is changing and the demand for teachers is increasing - from the coming winter semester, the University of Kassel will therefore be offering a course in "Special Needs Education with a Focus on Inclusion" for the first time. It is pursuing a concept that prepares students particularly well for the job market.

Scene from the teacher training course — Symbolic image.

The course is designed in such a way that students are not only trained to work at special schools, as these are being continuously dismantled in favor of inclusion at mainstream schools in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. "From the University of Kassel's point of view, training in special needs education - with a particular focus on working in inclusion at mainstream schools, but also with a qualification for teaching at special schools - offers a good solution. Other universities that train teachers for special schools have not yet geared their courses so clearly towards inclusive teaching," explains Prof. Dr. René Matzdorf, Vice President for Studies and Teaching at the University of Kassel.

The special needs education course in Kassel covers the special areas of "learning" and "emotional and social development", which account for the majority of the support needs of the pupils concerned. Another special feature of the new degree course is that, in addition to the main areas of support and a teaching subject, it also addresses the targeted promotion of basic language and mathematical skills. The job prospects are excellent. Prospective students can already subscribe to a mailing list: foerderpaed-zlb[at]uni-kassel[dot]de.The course will also be presented on 17 May at 15:30 at UNI:Lokal, Wilhelmsstraße 21.

60 study places are available, five new professorships will be created, plus additional positions for academic and teaching staff as well as administrative staff. The ratio of professors to students will therefore be excellent. The standard period of study is nine semesters. Students on the new course will study the so-called core course - with content from educational science, pedagogy, didactics, psychology and social sciences - together with students from other teaching disciplines. This will help to dovetail special and mainstream school teaching, and inclusion will be given greater consideration as a topic in all teacher training courses at the University of Kassel. There will probably be no admission restrictions for the winter semester 2024/2025, but this is not ruled out for later.

The initiative to establish the course came from the state of Hesse. The state is responding to a high demand for special needs teachers. Funding is provided by additional funds from the state.

The University of Kassel already offers teacher training courses for elementary school, secondary schools, grammar schools and vocational and business education. Around a fifth of all enrolled students are studying to become teachers.

Further information :
www.uni-kassel.de/uni/studium/lehramt-fuer-foerderpaedagogik-inklusion-erste-staatspruefung

Press contact:

Sebastian Mense
University of Kassel
Press spokesperson
Tel: +49 561 804-2474
E-Mail: presse[at]uni-kassel[dot]de