This education partnership was initiated by Bernd Schlegel, headmaster of Uhlandschule (school for children with special needs) and Dirk Zedler, Managing Director of Zedler-Institut für Fahrradtechnik- und Sicherheit GmbH. Silke Benner, headmaster of Werkrealschule Tobias-Mayer-Schule, and Monika Mayer-Schumacher, headmaster of Anne-Frank-Realschule, were hooked right away when they were invited to take part in this extraordinary project.
Selected pupils of the three schools experience and organize the setup of "their" workshop from the beginning. Together with a master mechanic cycle craft from the Zedler team and the bicycle-enthusiastic school social worker Mark Lange they will rework a room at Uhlandschule into a bicycle workshop before they will be instructed there in the basic knowledge of bicycle technology.
Dirk Zedler is looking forward to the project: "We've got the opportunity to give selected pupils a deep insight into promising technologies combined with practical training and to show them that bicycles and in particular pedelecs and e-bikes make a significant contribution to changing urban mobility. For the success of the project we not only share our knowledge and our enthusiasm all around the bicycle, but we also make available a good portion of the workshop equipment as well as of the bicycles and components necessary for screwing."
Juliane Lechner of the CCI is thrilled. "This kind of education partnership is really unique. Especially in this sector there are few cooperations. And for both schools, Tobias-Mayer-Schule and Uhlandschule, it's the first education partnership."
Bernd Schlegel, bicycle-enthusiastic headmaster, is proud of the fast realisation and grateful for the commitment of the Zedler team. "The pupils are looking forward to the soon start of their work. From April on already they are supposed to start in small groups and will gain first insights into bicycle technology. The great thing about our education partner Zedler is the high technical level. We do not cooperate with a bicycle repair shop, but with a company dealing with state-of-the-art technologies, which can offer a lot to our pupils and will do."
Author: Jürgen Wetzstein
