AKAD
| AKAD | |
|---|---|
|
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| founding | 1956 |
| place | Basel , Bern , Lausanne , Zurich |
| Students | over 8,000 (2016) |
| Employee | ~ 78 administrative (2016) ~ 1,100 educational (2016) |
| Website | www.akad.ch |
The AKAD is a private education provider in upper secondary and tertiary level, from the basic commercial training (office specialist diploma, trade certificate, federal certificate ) and the graduation ( Matura , Vocational , Passerelle ) on the commercial training (certificate federal, Professional Certificate federal diploma..) up to degrees from various higher technical schools . Language courses and individual training courses are also offered.
Locations are Zurich (headquarters), Basel, Bern and Lausanne. In Germany, the AKAD private universities operate under the AKAD brand .
method
The AKAD method is based on a combination of accompanied self-study and classroom teaching:
- The accompanied self-study consists of the independent processing of specially didactic study books. During the independent processing of the learning booklet, web teachers are available for support in the AKAD learning room. After processing the study book, exam questions are available that can be solved online and corrected and graded by specialists.
- Classroom teaching consists of seminars at one of the school locations. This is where the knowledge gained is deepened and networked.
schools
- AKAD College enables access to universities and colleges: In addition to the traditional high school Matura, the house Matura, the Vocational Matura, the Passerelle (additional examination for professional Matura) and the commercial school as well as individual, tailor-made preparatory courses for universities are offered.
- AKAD Business offers commercial employees further training in the areas of accounting, fiduciary and debt collection, personnel and management, marketing and sales as well as economics and management at certificate level, federal. Certificate and federal Diploma. In addition, various advanced training courses are offered at the level of higher technical schools.
- AKAD Language + Culture offers language courses at different levels in accompanied self-study or online lessons.
- AKAD Home Academy is aimed at people who, regardless of time and location, want to take part in self-study in a specific subject or who want to refresh their knowledge.
- AKAD Technics is tailored for specialists in the technical field: from certificates up to the level of higher technical school, a comprehensive range of training courses is offered around technology and IT.
history
founding
Two friends, Herbert Maissen (1928–2016) and Juan Meier († 1983), both students of phil. I at the University of Zurich, founded the academic community for adult education. This was preceded by the shared experience of completing a secondary school diploma, which was very difficult at the time. Their idea was to develop teaching books in which "the lecturers were built-in". In this way, the Matura material could mainly be developed in self-study and only had to be deepened and practiced with little face-to-face teaching. With that the very own teaching and learning method was born: the AKAD method.
In 1956, they founded AKAD and started their first course with five students in an apartment on Seefeldstrasse in Zurich. A team of relatives, fellow students and professors from the university wrote exercise books and set up the supporting lesson sequences.
Contacts with the university in Tübingen gave rise to the idea of introducing the AKAD model in Germany as well. In 1959 AKAD Germany was founded with headquarters in Stuttgart.
development
Realizing that the AKAD method is not only suitable for the Matura, further training courses were offered and the higher business school, the commercial school and the language school were opened.
AKAD Germany also expanded its offering in the direction of business and received state recognition as a university of applied sciences in 1980. In Switzerland, distance learning was still not considered a school achievement.
The growth required new structures. In addition to administrative and IT services, the founding of AKAD-Verlag laid the foundations for the systematic development and production of AKAD teaching materials, which are the foundation of the AKAD method.
In 1971 AKAD moved to its current location on Jungholzstrasse. In 1983 the co-founder Juan Meier died.
With the support of the federal states, AKAD Germany was able to establish further locations with state recognition as a university of applied sciences.
The AKAD publishing house was expanded in Switzerland. Every month he delivered over 100,000 «AKAD lessons». 30 employees maintained a unique content of over 1000 titles.
Other well-known educational institutes became part of the AKAD group. Minerva Zurich, Limania Aarau and the learning studio in Zurich were looking for a connection due to succession problems. The AKAD was also involved in basic education for young people and in traditional face-to-face teaching. The brands and the locations remained.
The cooperation between the Higher Technical College for Banking and Finance (HFBF) and the Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences has been intensified since 2016, and in November 2017 AKAD Banking and Finance AG became Kalaidos Banking + Finance School AG. As a result, the Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences started the Bachelor of Science FH in Banking and Finance with an integrated degree “Federal. Diploma in banking economist HF “and SAQ personal certificates for bank customer advisors. The courses were previously carried out by the AKAD Banking and Finance School.
New leadership
The founder Herbert Maissen arranged his succession in 1995 with the support of an external specialist and worked out a future-proof solution: The German Cornelsen Verlag took over AKAD Germany. Jakob Limacher, Thomas Suter and Christian Zindel made an offer for AKAD in Switzerland, which Herbert Maissen accepted.
In the years that followed, the new owners developed a wide-ranging educational group around the AKAD core, which they named "Kalaidos".
Organization of the AKAD schools
The AKAD schools are companies of the Kalaidos Education Group Switzerland . Kalaidos unites educational institutes from elementary school and high school level through vocational training and further education to university level. As an educational group, it also has an educational media company and a company that specializes in educational logistics services.
courses
- AKAD Business
- AKAD College
- AKAD Home Academy
- AKAD Language + Culture
- AKAD Technics
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Urs Tremp: ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Humanist with his own school. ) Obituary in: NZZ am Sonntag of August 21, 2016, p. 18.