Hermods

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Hermods (at times also Hermods Korrespondensinstitut ) is the oldest Swedish school for distance learning . It was founded in Malmö in 1898 by Hans Svensson Hermod (1860–1920) and has developed a wide range of courses over the decades. Today the institute is a Stockholm- based public company with around 700 employees.

history

Newspaper advertisement from the Hermods Distance Learning School from 1927

After a long stay abroad, the pedagogue Hans Svensson Hermod began to publish the magazine Tyskt-Engelskt-Franskt-Spanskt-Italienskt öfvningsblad (exercise sheet for German-English-French-Spanish-Italian) in 1893 , with the help of which subscribers were supposed to acquire or deepen language skills . This laid the foundation for the first correspondence school in Sweden, which Hermod opened in 1898 under the name Malmö Språk- & Handelsinstitut at Södergatan 17 in Malmö. The “Hermod system” developed by the company's founder provided that the pupils were sent two 8 to 32 page long letters in octave format containing the subject matter. Students were asked to read the first of these two letters carefully. Then they had to answer questions that were formulated in an attached question and task letter. They sent their solutions to the Distance Learning School in Malmö, where their answers were corrected. While the students waited for these corrections (and further clarification), they studied the second letter. With the questions corrected, they had already received the third letter that they could take as soon as Letter No. 2 was on its way.

Initially, the institute only offered courses in accounting and in various languages. By 1918, when the institute moved to a building at Slottsgatan 18, the offer had grown to 250 courses, which were used by 20,000 students. The spectrum ranged from business to technical topics and also included subjects in social and agricultural sciences as well as various school and vocational training courses. In the spring of 1941 Hermods set up a secondary school in Robertsfors, northern Sweden , which combined the principles of distance and direct instruction. The students visited the institute's premises for a few hours a week, while the rest of the time they were taught by letter according to the tried and tested system. Other correspondence schools such as the Nordiska korrespondensinstitutet, which was also established in Malmö, imitated this two-part form of teaching, soon known as the "Robertsfors method". Within a short period of time, Hermods set up 60 secondary schools of this type throughout Sweden. After students who lived in remote areas were able to receive government grants (for travel, etc.), the number of schools declined again.

As the first correspondence school in Sweden, Hermods was granted the right to take exams in 1958, which to this day allows the institute to hold state-recognized final exams for elementary and secondary schools as well as high school. In the 1960s, over 100,000 students registered annually for the various courses. In 1965, Hermods took over its biggest competitor, the Nordiska korrespondensinstitutet . In the early 1970s, however, the number of participants declined. A general economic crisis meant that the institute was taken over in 1975 by Liber Verlag, which was then state-owned. Hermods has been a public company since 1993, the majority of which was temporarily the Inter IKEA investment group . In December 2013 Hermods merged with AcadeMedia AB .

From 1901 to 1975 Hermods published the magazine Korrespondens with a circulation of up to 300,000 copies. In addition, the institute published textbooks and specialist books. These departments were later taken over by Liber.

In 2013 the company had around 700 employees. It had a turnover of 600 million Swedish kronor .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Hermods ( Memento of the original dated August 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , malmo.se (accessed July 26, 2014)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.malmo.se
  2. ↑ a b Hermods och AcadeMedia går samman ( Memento of the original from July 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , acamedia.se (accessed July 26, 2014)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.academedia.se

literature

  • Gunnar Gaddén: Hermods 1898–1973. Ett bidrag till det svenska undervisningsväsendets historia , Malmö 1973. ISBN 91-23-38020-9 .
  • Börje Holmberg: Growth and Structure of Distance Education , London 1986. ISBN 0-7099-4748-8 .

Web links