EU finances new Dresden school building for microelectronics and mechatronics

Around 100 million euros from EU funds will enable the construction of a new educational campus in Dresden. The plan is to build a new vocational school center for electrical engineering and a four-court sports hall, for which a total of 136 million euros has been budgeted. The vocational school center (BSZ) for electrical engineering in Dresden, which is currently located in Strehlen on the border to the southern suburbs, is to move in.

According to the city administration, the new construction project in the southern district of Prohlis is important "for the dual training of urgently needed skilled workers for the industrial settlements in the north of Dresden –, particularly in the fields of microelectronics and mechatronics". At the same time, the educational campus is intended to improve the district. Prohlis is best known for the "prefabricated buildings" constructed there between 1976 and 1980.

"The Excellence-BSZ in Prohlis is a key for economic development and for Dresden as an educational location," said Dresden's Education Mayor Jan Donhauser (CDU) in May, "We want to create an excellent training facility that will secure the next generation of skilled workers and set standards for dual vocational training throughout Germany."

100 million, if things go quickly

Funding has now been approved by the European Union. Provided the new building is completed by the end of 2028, around 100 million euros will flow from the STEP budget (Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform). The funding program, which was approved at the end of 2023, is intended to promote the growth of important value chains in the digital economy, climate protection and biotechnology. The aim is to leverage subsidies to mobilize up to 160 billion euros from the economy for new investments. In addition, the shortage of skilled workers is to be combated; the money is flowing to Saxony with this in mind.

"Saxony will become the training heart of the semiconductor industry," hopes Minister of Culture Conrad Clemens (CDU). "High technology doesn't start in the laboratory, but in the classroom. This 100 million EU milestone will catapult our skilled workforce training towards the future – a huge opportunity for young people in Saxony." Economics Minister Dirk Panter (SPD) also wants to "attract trainees from all over Germany and our neighboring countries to Saxony".

Excellence-BSZ

In 1990, four company vocational schools in Dresden became three vocational schools for electrical engineering. Two years later, they became the Dresden Vocational School Center for Electrical Engineering. Its distribution across four locations was laborious, but from 1994, the building complex of the former Technical College for Technology and Business Administration (formerly the Engineering School for Traffic Technology), built in the 1950s, became available on Strehlener Platz.

This was renovated and gradually moved into; since 1997, all parts of the school have been located at Strehlener Platz on the border with Südvorstadt: a vocational grammar school, a technical college and a vocational school for electrical professions, mechatronics, microtechnology and IT professions.

The grammar school has two subject areas: technology (with a focus on electrical engineering and mechanical engineering) and ICT; it also offers dual vocational training with Abitur for IT systems electronics technicians, IT specialists and mechatronics technicians. The technical college teaches in the fields of electrical engineering, IT, mechanical engineering and mechatronics. The vocational school is dedicated to both skilled trades (electronics) and industrial professions (electronics, electronic system assembly, IT, system electronics, mechatronics, microtechnology).

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