Pädagogische Hochschule Wien

Ukraine crisis support from PH Wien for children in Vienna via Erasmus+ interns

Ukraine crisis support from Vienna via Erasmus+ internships and long-standing Ukrainian partner universities: children, mothers, and schools benefit from the deployment of Ukrainian Erasmus+ trainees.

The first two trainees for Viennese schools and their ukrainian Coordinator at PH Wien

Objectives

Former Erasmus+ students (KA107 and KA171) are being brought back to Vienna to provide Ukrainian children in Viennese schools with mother-tongue lessons, as well as adequate German lessons and translation support. The aim is to help displaced persons quickly, efficiently, and without bureaucracy, and to support them in the school enrollment process. In the long term, this also provides a perspective for the trainees to apply for jobs at the education administration as well as other positions in Vienna. However, Ukrainian teachers should also be enabled to remain in the school system by means of adequate further training courses.

Background

Erasmus+ internships, long-standing contact with Ukrainian partner universities, financial OeAD support, cooperative education administration, and helpful municipal departments: The outbreak of war in Ukraine in February 2022 caused thousands of mothers with children to flee to Vienna. The school system was overwhelmed with children and mothers who did not speak German, as in the schools hardly anyone spoke Ukrainian or Russian. The Vienna Education Administration approached the PH Wien, knowing that it has long-standing contacts in the western part of Ukraine and students who speak German. The PH offered internships via Erasmus+ and thus was able to support schools initially in the vicinity of the PH Wien. After further funding was approved by the OeAD, more trainees were brought to Vienna to support their fellow countrymen. This is still happening today. An advanced training course (blended, i.e., hybrid) was also developed for Ukrainian-speaking teachers at the PH Wien, which was financed by Erasmus+ funds and could be held in the fall.

(Implemented) Activities

In mid-March 2022, the Vienna Administration of Education contacted the PH Wien to send Ukrainian incoming students to Viennese schools as support. Three Ukrainian students were already looking after Ukrainian children. Later, the question also arose as to whether Ukrainian students who had already spent a semester in Vienna would be interested in possible employment. However, this was associated with major bureaucratic hurdles and loss of time. This situation gave rise to the idea of employing students with a very good knowledge of German as trainees as part of the International Program, especially for teaching, advising, and translation functions. The PH Wien quickly asked Ukrainian universities and the OeAD whether it would be possible to implement. The long-standing Ukrainian partner university in Drohobych agreed to continue sending two students to Vienna. The OeAD promised additional funding for internships. The project started in mid-April. Zoom interviews were held with students, and direct contact was established between PH Wien and the relevant schools. Two additional selected students finally arrived over the Easter holidays. From mid-April 2022, they were deployed in schools in Favoriten, Simmering, and Josefstadt until the end of the school year. In addition to the three students already enrolled at PH Wien before the start of the war, this resulted in seven trainees at the beginning of the aggression and during the year, who intensively supported up to ten schools with their know-how and manpower. This continued from 2023 to 2024, at schools where there were new arrivals. Now, in 2025, Ukrainian teachers are already employed at the schools as native speakers, providing support in a variety of ways, but also as full-time employees.

Results

Ukrainian children stranded in Vienna with their mothers were quickly given the right and necessary support. In addition, Ukrainian teachers were given long-term support at the PH Wien in their efforts to improve their German language skills. After all, shortly after the start of the crisis, five students were already able to provide support in Viennese schools (already in 2022) both administratively with the head teachers, in parent-teacher meetings in their mother tongue as interpreters, and, of course, in the classroom (employing half-time teaching commitments). From the 2022/23 school year until the present, further trainees were brought in and financed via Erasmus+ and deployed in various schools with different sizes of Ukrainian student populations. The PH Wien was able to continue this with KA171 funds until the fall of 2024 and thus used the trainees as valuable multipliers. Following this pattern, some of them also went to the federal states of Linz and Graz and were gladly employed as teachers by the education administrations there. In the fall of 2024, the PH was able to offer a 40-hour blended training event at the PH Wien for Ukrainian teachers working in the elementary sector with two Ukrainian German language and literature lecturers (again via KA171). The aim is to improve their German language skills to obtain a permanent position later or to pass the ÖSD exam at the C1 level. The course (see here: https://www.ph-online.ac.at/ph wien/wbLv.wbShowLVDetail?pStpSpNr=314966&pSpracheNr=1) received excellent feedback for the speakers. The last events at the PH took place face-to-face and also served as exam preparation.

Lessons learned

Short-term funding via Erasmus+ overcomes bureaucratic hurdles that would take months. Through intensive contact with the Vienna Education Administration, a quick and sustainable solution was found. Students with a bachelor's degree in teaching came back to Vienna in the following semesters, received an Erasmus+ grant again for the time being, and could (if there was still a need due to the war) be fully employed as teachers via a special contract with the Administration of Education. See also: https://www.bildung-wien.gv.at/service/Krieg-in-der-Ukraine/Hilfe-und-Unterst-tzung-durch-die-Bildungsdirektion-f-r-Wien.html Other trainees have already been taken on by the federal government and have since been working either at the PH Wien or in the private sector in Vienna or the federal states. All of this - originally made possible with Erasmus+ grants as a door-opener. The European Commission has also become aware of our project and has published it as a good example of Erasmus+ projects that provide support for people affected by war: https://op.europa.eu/de/publication-detail/-/publication/60f108ce-be59-11ee-b164-01aa75ed71a1/language-en

Ukrainian trainee and her Coordinator in an elementary school in Vienna Favoriten, surrounded by Ukrainian children

Two ukrainian lecturers of the German classes for Ukrainian teachers

The first two (and for the time being last) Ukrainian male trainees and their Coordinator in a Viennese secondary school

Further links