Education and Training

education and starting a career

Jena offers the best place for young people to get an education, study and start their careers. Whether vocational training, a bachelor’s- or a master’s degree, there are as many different opportunities for an individually-tailored career path in Jena as there are trades and professions in the city’s businesses, vocational training colleges and study paths in the city’s two universities. Jena has an excellent reputation world-wide for its courses in optics and photonics, but also in many other areas. The future-proof, high-growth sectors in Jena are the digital industry, the sciences, the health professions and the traditional technical fields. Many companies in Jena have deep local roots and are committed to training and supporting young talent in many different industries and sectors, both by means of special trainee programmes, and by promoting in-school and extra-curricular projects.

In many professions, particularly in the skilled trades and the business/commercial sectors, training is provided using the so-called ‘dual system’ – in Jena as in the rest of Germany. This means that practical training takes place within a company, while the theoretical groundwork is learnt in classes at a vocational training college. In 2019, a total of 1,139 individuals completed their training/apprenticehips at Jena’s vocational training colleges. Jena’s five vocational training colleges provided training and further education to 3,641 individuals over 201 classes in 2019.

A complete overview of career-entry, internships, education and training is available at JUPITER, the Jena business portal, as well as details of current job opportunities.

JUPITER Jena

Studying

From A for ancient history to Z for zoology – Jena’s two universities, Friedrich Schiller University (FSU Jena) and the Ernst Abbe Hochschule (EAH Jena [University of Applied Sciences]) offer a total of 285 different subjects. So there’s a very wide choice of subject areas to help you start your career with a good academic grounding. There are more than enough like-minded people in Jena for you to meet: we have around 23,000 young people studying here – around 20% of the entire population of Jena! And Jena’s beautiful countryside, wide and varied array of cultural offerings, and around 450 university sports clubs and activities mean you won’t have to miss out on your leisure pursuits when you’re studying.

Further training and qualifications

Many companies in Jena focus on offering their employees individually tailored opportunities to gain further qualifications. They are committed to encouraging lifelong learning in their teams and ensuring they take advantage of the many opportunities for further training. In Jena, a wide range of vocational training is available from many providers. Companies and industry networks offer their own specialised further training courses. This close interrelationship of business and science in one place provides the optimal conditions for the workforce to be kept up to date with the latest knowledge in their particular discipline.

If you come to Jena as part of the international professional workforce, you will discover that further professional and general training is very important in Germany. In many occupations, you are required to gain further qualifications that after your initial training. This can be via courses, seminars, e-learning programmes, retraining, or distance- or online courses of study.

This further training is either financed by the employer, or you can apply for a financial and/or short-term grant.