Educational areas

Childminders (childminders) and daycare centers (Kitas) are available in Jena for the education, upbringing and care of young children. Day care is available from just a few weeks after birth until the child starts school.

Childminders look after children between the ages of 0 and 3 in Jena. The childminders offer care and support for a maximum of five children in their own home or in separate rooms. You can find information on child day care here.

In some daycare centers, children can be cared for from just a few weeks after birth until they start school. Information on the more than 60 daycare centers in Jena and how you can register your child in a daycare center can be found in the Kita-Portal.

Children are legally entitled to daycare from the age of one.

In Jena, there are just over 30 state and independent schools. As a special form of state school, the city of Jena has staffing authority over two schools (so-called "municipal schools").

The following types of school exist in Jena:

• Elementary school
• community schools
• comprehensive schools
• grammar schools
• Vocational schools
• Support centers

All schools with a primary school section offer after-school care.

You can find an overview of Jena's schools, important dates for school registration, information on school transportation and the contact persons of the Jena school administration on the school portal.

The city's youth work/youth social work team offers advice on vacation and leisure activities in Jena.

There are five youth centers in Jena that offer leisure and educational activities in the afternoons and sometimes at weekends:

• JG Stadtmitte (West/Center)
• Polaris Youth Education and Meeting Center (North)
• Eastside Youth Center (East)
• Hugo Youth Center (Winzerla)
• Westside Youth Center (Lobeda)

Three other facilities in Lobeda and Winzerla offer activities for children between the ages of 10 and 14:

• Freizeitladen Winzerla
• KLEX children's and youth center
• Lobeda adventure playground

All open child and youth work facilities also organize vacation activities. Every year, the city publishes a summer vacation brochure together with the Jenaer Bündnis für Familie and brochures are also published for the winter, Easter and autumn vacations. The current vacation brochure can be found opposite under Downloads.

You can find an overview of the youth associations from the scouts to the sports youth at the Demokratischer Jugendring Jena e. V.

You will soon find the link to the youth portal here, which is still under construction.

Jena offers training and study opportunities for over 300 professions.

The Employment Agency offers basic advice on the transition from school to training and study.

At Work in Jena, JenaWirtschaft provides information on career and study orientation events for school pupils, gives insights into job profiles and also offers a database on internships, among other things.

The two universities in Jena, Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Ernst Abbe University Jena, each offer their own student advisory services. Please visit their websites to find out about the wide range of study options.

The Youth Vocational AssistanceService also provides advice specifically for young people and young adults in difficult situations when looking for accommodation, financing training or preparing application documents.

Jena's educational landscape is also characterized by its diverse cultural offerings, be it the countless cultural associations with a colourful socio-cultural and alternative scene as well as the JenaKultur institutions from the city library to the municipal museums, the music and art school to the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra.

You can find an overview of STEM educational offers for children and young people, including the Student Research Center, on the witelo network website. Numerous associations and institutions in Jena also offer special environmental education programs.

For people who have recently arrived in Jena or are planning to stay here, educational offers in several languages from school to vocational training to university are presented on Neu in Jena.

Educational guidance in Jena is organized on a decentralized basis. All facilities have the task of referring citizens to the appropriate office.

For example, the Family Information Point (FIP) in the Citizens' Serviceadvises on questions regarding daycare registration, after-school care fees or student grants.

An overview of other advice services for various target groups can be found on the New in Jena page.

We will soon be providing information here about other facilities that can advise you on educational issues.