«We allow young people to mature»
Mr Limacher, who is the target audience for the Dreipunkt Foundation's services?
We offer support programmes to help young adults between the ages of 14 and 30 who are having difficulty finding an apprenticeship or completing their education to successfully enter the workforce. Our most popular programmes are our motivational semesters for young people who have dropped out of an apprenticeship or who have no plans for their future after leaving school.
It's about breaking out of a deadlocked situation and finding out: Who am I, what suits me, where should I go?
Through guided career choice, including work training, they are prepared for apprenticeships and vocational school. We also have programmes for young people who are still attending compulsory school. The class for time-out and transition, for example, is aimed at adolescents who are overwhelmed by normal school life or whose behaviour causes problems.
How do you help these young people?
The first step is to break out of a deadlocked situation and, as part of a reorientation process, find out: Who am I, what suits me, where should I go? During the three to eight-month break from school, the young people work intensively on personal, academic, social and emotional issues.
With us, they can mature and develop skills that were not encouraged in their family environment: perseverance or self-motivation, for example. All of our programmes – including the practical module class, which is aimed at young people with special educational needs due to behavioural issues – are strongly career-oriented.
Together, we need to find out what makes young people happy and where their skills lie. This is the purpose of placements in the wood-fired bakery and furniture workshop that we run, as well as in various work studios, but also taster days in partner companies in different industries.
Who can access your programmes?
Our referral partners include schools, school and social services, the IV (Invalidity Insurance) or the Kesb (Child and Adult Protection Authority), as well as training companies that need support in assisting learners. Depending on the programme, our services are aimed at teenagers and young adults from Lucerne and neighbouring cantons.
Further information: stiftungdreipunkt.ch
