New VHS programme to be published this week

The new programme of the Bocholt-Rhede-Isselburg Adult Education Centre for the 2024/2 academic year will be published on Thursday. Many great courses are also planned for the second half of the year. Registrations will be possible from next week, Thursday 22 August.

With more than 400 events in Bocholt, Rhede, Isselburg, online and at external venues, the VHS offers a diverse and wide-ranging programme of further education for various interests and needs in the second half of 2024. Appointments for consultations on integration and language courses as well as general information can be found on the homepage and at the VHS office in Bocholt on 02871/953-2277, at the branch offices in Rhede on 02872/930-269 and Isselburg on 02874/911-31.

Online registrations are possible from Thursday, 22 August 2024 at www.vhs-bocholt.de Personal registrations will also be accepted at the VHS Bocholt office in the LernWerk and the branch offices in Rhede and Isselburg from this date.

Adult education centre moves to LernWerk

The highlight of the new semester, apart from the programme on offer, is the move into the LernWerk: "We are delighted that we can finally start in the LernWerk. The premises with new technology and special furniture offer us wonderful opportunities for a varied programme", says VHS director Isabel Testroet. Everything is now "under one roof in a colourful building", says Testroet. This is "a gain for the VHS and the city of Bocholt."

Joint opening of the semester

The LernWerk and the other locations make it possible to implement the varied VHS programme: VHS Bocholt-Rhede-Isselburg, Fabi Bocholt and the VHS sponsors' association invite you to the joint semester opening on Monday, 9 September at 5:30 pm at the LernWerk. It is organised in conjunction with the district-wide "Mental Health Month 2024".

At the beginning of the event, which will be accompanied by young musicians from the Bocholt-Isselburg music school, photographer Manfred Jasmund will give an introduction to his photo project "Faces of Depression" and take interested parties on a tour of the exhibition of the same name. Afterwards, Stephan Kamps will present his lecture "Marathon of Life". The start of the semester is free of charge.

Action month "Mentally healthy 2024"

The opening of the semester is also the start of the "Mentally Healthy 2024" month of action, which is organised by the Department of Psychosocial Health of the Borken district together with many cooperation partners. Numerous programmes are being held throughout the district as part of the campaign. At the VHS, these include the lecture "Understanding and coping with depression" by Jörg Ristau, specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy at St. Vinzenz-Hospital Rhede/psychiatric day clinic.

The VHS is also offering cookery courses in the new kitchen at LernWerk Bocholt from this semester onwards. In addition to the breakfast world tour and tapas courses, there will also be tasty treats from South Asian cuisine.

Together with the volunteer agency, the adult education centre is offering the free lecture "Artificial Intelligence - Chat GPT and more" as well as the training courses "Cash audit and bookkeeping for associations" and "Basics of professional press and public relations work". They are aimed in particular at Bocholt residents who are involved in voluntary work.

Interdisciplinary "Country Week"

A new idea is the interdisciplinary "Country Week", which is dedicated to the topic of Italy from 15 to 22 November. It will start with a "weekend language course for beginners", which will teach basic language skills as well as regional studies and culinary delights.

The wine seminar "Bella Italia" and the cookery evening "Pasta & Pesto" will focus on the gourmet side of Italy. A classic Italian film, "Cinema Paradiso", which has won numerous awards including the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, will be shown. The crowning finale of the "Italian Week" is the multivision "Luigi must go home! - A road trip through Italy", presented on a panoramic screen by professional photographers Gereon Roemer and Martin Buschmann.

Joint tours and International Week

There is also a new interdisciplinary offer in the area of tours and travelling with a study trip to Utrecht: it is offered on two dates, with German being spoken during one offer and Dutch only during the other offer, which is aimed at participants who want to test and refresh their language skills.

The main focus in the area of politics and society is Intercultural Week 2024, which is being organised three times at LernWerk under the motto "New Spaces". The closing event for the district-wide project "First Voter" with Albrecht von Lucke will certainly also be a highlight and will take place in the Rheder Ei. This will be organised in cooperation with VHS Borken.

In the field of psychology, there are two new formats: "Biography in the House of Life®" and "The Ultimate Personality Training" promise further development of one's own personality.

Many creative courses

In addition to highly topical issues relating to climate protection and modern building technology, the Nature & Environment area is offering a lecture entitled "Dive Your Dream - The Fascination of the Underwater World", in which the speaker Marion Harder combines her passion for diving and professional underwater photography.

In the Culture & Creativity area, some new offers have been added to the programme, e.g. "Introduction to Creative Writing", "Writers' Room", "Goldsmith's Workshop" and finally "Pottery" again. In the Photography area, the Duisburg Landscape Park is the destination of a photo workshop on the subject of night photography, partly because of the light staging by the British artist Jonathan Park.

As usual, there will be a wide range of offers in the area of work - IT, from educational holidays on "Adobe Creative Cloud" to "Paperless Office". There are many basic courses, e.g. "Safe on the keyboard - 10 fingers blind" or all about Office topics. Of particular interest are the online courses on Affinity, MS Loop, WordPress, MS Teams, project management, MS OneNote, Outlook and various other topics.

New languages, new perspectives

In the foreign languages area, courses in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Greek and Croatian are in the programme. Serbian and Turkish for beginners are new additions to the programme. The Dutch department offers various formats for educational holidays and, for the first time, a weekend for beginners.

Language consultations for German as a foreign language and foreign language courses will take place on Tuesday, 27 August from 9:30 to 12:00 and on Thursday, 29 August from 9:30 to 12:00 and 14:30 to 16:30. Please make an appointment on 02871-953-2277.

On 15 August 2024, the new programme booklet of the Bocholt-Rhede-Isselburg Adult Education Centre for the 2024/2 academic semester will be published as a supplement in the Bocholter-Borkener-Volksblatt and online on the VHS homepage. It is also available at the VHS office in Bocholt (LernWerk, Industriestr. 1, 46395 Bocholt), at the branches in Rhede (city administration, Rathausplatz 9, 46414 Rhede) and Isselburg (city administration, Hüttenstr. 33-35, 46419 Isselburg) as well as at other public locations (e.g. Bocholt City Library).