Six young people stand at the fub of the climbing wall, all of them have harnesses on and a white helmet on their heads. One of them, stephanie noth from burkardroth, is currently instructing the others in the belaying technique. Martin mai volunteers to climb, stephanie attaches two carabiners to his harness, instructs the others to belay, and michael gets started. The whole scene is watched by a man in a red helmet: trainer carsten waider. His goal is that by thursday the group is so fit that they pass the final exam and thus may soon put on the red helmet itself.
Stephanie noth (26) is a trainee educator. She has already completed an apprenticeship as a commercial clerk for tourism and recreation. During this training, she also visited a forest ropes course for the first time: "I had a lot of respect, but it was also raining and cold, has the experience in less good memory. At the end of 2010, a friend took her to the high ropes course on the volkersberg. "That's it", she immediately thought to herself. "It was a fantastic experience, I enjoyed it straight away", the goal of leading groups in the high ropes course was set at that time.
Teamer since 2009
Stephanie Noth started working as a teamer at the youth education center back in 2009. Teamers are the people who supervise school classes, groups of students or other course participants. A large part of this has always been experiential education: the children and young people go out a lot, go on hikes, solve tasks in nature, or build something with natural materials. In 2010, stepahnie noth from burkardroth also reoriented herself professionally and began training to become an educator: "it's still open how things will develop." the training as an honorary high ropes course trainer is a useful addition in any case: "here i get practice in working with different groups."
The eleven participants in the training were selected during the winter: during test climbs, the training officers and the applicants were able to find out who would enjoy the work and who would be suitable for it. In the run-up to the actual technical training, there was then a two-and-a-half-day basic course on the topics of moderation and driving groups. "This provides additional quality", says instructor carsten waider (37) about this concept. "So we can concentrate on the technology here."
Since saturday, the participants have been on the course every day from early to late, followed by theory sessions in the evening. On thursday there is the exam, where everyone has to show what they have learned during the training week.
Return to the old home
Trainer Jule Hildmann (35) comes from bad bruckenau, but now lives in the augsburg area. She always likes to return to her old home for the experiential education work on the volkersberg. The special pedagogue is an instructional trainer at volkersberg and accompanies the prospective trainers through the training program. In a basic course, the focus was on moderation and cooperation tasks: "how do i work with groups, how do i deal with crises, how do i accompany people on the high ropes course?, had been topics. "Now it's all about the security technology", summarize the goal of the second part of training.
"I was really scared on my first visit", angelika martin (22) from oberbach reports on her first impression of the high ropes course. At the age of 14, she took part in a taster weekend, after which there was a break of seven years. It wasn't until she started working as a teamer at the volkersberg in 2011 that she rediscovered the high ropes course as a tool for educational work. Angelika martin is an active volunteer in the KJG oberbach as the second parish leader and is studying social work with a focus on youth and adult education. The high ropes course fits in well: "I think it's great when you see someone grow beyond themselves, says angelika martin.
Every week on the mountain
"I'm on the mountain every week at the moment", reports stephan heil from oberleichtersbach. The 20-year-old started youth work on the mountain at the end of 2010. The contact came about through his neighbor anne vogler, who is an education officer in the youth education center. Heil completed his circus training and works as a teamer, supervising classes and groups of young people. "That was one of my fondest memories in high school", still remembers fondly his own first visit to the high ropes course in the 9. Class. "I've always been a guy who climbs everywhere", he was tempted by the task. He is surprised that the training is "more mentally demanding than physically" is.
The diozese wurzburg and the haus volkersberg expanded their experiential education work on the volkersberg at the beginning of 2003 to include the high ropes course. With the help of the city and donations, the area between the bungalow village was created. In the high, a self-security area and individual exercises in the team area are available. Complementary work can also be done on low-rope elements.
Occupancy last year, 5856 visitors came to 257 events. In contrast to forest ropes courses, visitors to the volkersberg are supervised: on average, one of the more than 40 trainers instructs around nine visitors in the exercises. In addition to the educational work, the trainers have also supervised 23 corporate events with 895 participants. In july there was a training week with 457 participants and 47 trainer missions.