{"id":4503,"date":"2024-11-28T15:00:38","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T14:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.edtechaustria.at\/healthy-apprentice-health-literacy-for-vocational-schools\/"},"modified":"2024-11-28T15:06:24","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T14:06:24","slug":"gesunder-lehrling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edtechaustria.at\/en\/gesunder-lehrling\/","title":{"rendered":"“Healthy Apprentice”: Health Literacy for Vocational Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bad News First: According to Statistics Austria, apprentices tend to suffer from health issues for many more years than those with higher educational qualifications.\u00a0The Good News?\u00a0Three sports scientists\u2014Bernhard Bayer, Alexander Schaar-Christen, and Roland Stegm\u00fcller\u2014are tackling this problem with their initiative, Healthy Apprentice<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

A digital platform, launched in October and available free of charge to all vocational schools in Austria, offers videos featuring health tips on nutrition, physical activity, and mental fitness, as well as exercises for both mental and physical well-being. This platform seamlessly combines theory and practice. The three founders from Salzburg aim to reach all apprentices in Austria\u2014approximately 110,000 vocational school students!<\/p>\n

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The three founders, from the left: Bernhard Bayer, Roland Stegm\u00fcller and Alexander Schaar-Christen, Foto: OUTWORX<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For three years, they collaborated with pilot schools to develop the platform. \u201cThe goal is to enable educators to act as multipliers in vocational school classrooms and address the topic of health,\u201d says Bernhard. Teachers can easily register on the website and form internal health teams with their colleagues. Through digital onboarding, they learn how to best integrate the exercises into the school routine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Like Brushing Your Teeth Every Day”<\/h3>\n

The primary focus is on building skills so apprentices can take charge of their own health: \u201cIt\u2019s like brushing your teeth daily\u2014the more often they practice, the more it becomes a habit.\u201d The ten-minute physical breaks enhance not only flexibility, coordination, and body awareness but also students\u2019 focus. A random generator selects ten new exercises each time, all designed to strengthen or stretch the upper and lower back muscles. \u201cThis keeps the muscles active, ensuring the body doesn\u2019t forget to use them. The more they\u2019re engaged, the more integral they become to the body\u2019s function.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Photo: OUTWORX<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mental breaks, on the other hand, are based on relaxation techniques such as the 4-6 breathing method (inhale for four seconds, exhale for six). These exercises, lasting three, five, or ten minutes, can be used by educators before tests or exams\u2014or whenever stress levels in the classroom rise and a moment of calm is needed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Smiley Challenge<\/h3>\n

To motivate students to focus on health daily, the platform incorporates a gamification element: with every exercise, classes and schools earn Smileys. These can be viewed online in real-time as a live score after each exercise. Through the Smiley Challenge<\/em>, schools can compete with one another, aiming to earn a gold certificate by the end of the school year. Within schools, classes can also challenge each other, reinforcing daily health breaks.<\/p>\n

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Photo: OUTWORX<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Supported by the Fonds Gesundes \u00d6sterreich<\/em>, the Austrian Ministry of Arts, Culture, Public Service, and Sports, and the Salzburg Health Promotion Fund, Healthy Apprentice<\/em> appears to be on track to spark a movement\u2014ensuring that apprentices, equipped with a new sense of mental and physical health, no longer lag behind anyone.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Short Interview:<\/h3>\n

Currently, the initiative is only for apprentices. Are there plans for expansion?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We all started our careers as apprentices, so we have a deep understanding of what\u2019s needed in this area. That\u2019s why we\u2019re particularly committed to apprentice health. However, we are indeed planning to adapt the concept for other types of schools in the future. That\u2019s definitely a mid-term goal for us.<\/p>\n

What are you focusing on aside from Healthy Apprentice<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

With our company OUTWORX<\/a>, we\u2019ve developed a digital video platform for cities and municipalities\u2014the QR TRAINER<\/em>. This platform also promotes healthy breaks with breathing meditations, mindfulness exercises, or fitness programs. For example, the city of Linz already offers the QR TRAINER<\/em> to its residents: signs with QR codes in public parks direct users to the platform and exercises. Alongside Healthy Apprentice<\/em>, this is one of our largest projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Healthy Apprentice” is an initiative by the EdTech company OUTWORX, aiming to improve the health of apprentices by introducing them to topics such as nutrition, physical activity, and mental fitness, as well as exercises for mental and physical well-being.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4496,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vocational-education-and-training"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edtechaustria.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edtechaustria.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edtechaustria.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edtechaustria.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edtechaustria.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4503"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.edtechaustria.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4506,"href":"https:\/\/www.edtechaustria.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4503\/revisions\/4506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edtechaustria.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edtechaustria.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edtechaustria.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edtechaustria.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}