In September, an additional qualification for instructors in socio-educational professions was launched, which will improve the quality of training for nursery teachers in the facilities.

This was followed in the same month by the symposium "Healthy nutrition in the 2nd and 3rd year of life in crèches and after-school care", which was attended by 19 nursery teachers and housekeepers from ten different nurseries. The topic of the presentation by a speaker from the Lower Saxony Consumer Advice Center (federal project KiTa kids in form) was the importance and special features of nutrition at nursery age.

But there is more to come: this year will see the start of a series of further training courses on the topic of "pedagogical work in mixed-age groups", which the specialist service for children, youth and families is organizing together with the Volkshochschule. Nine kindergartens will receive further training in their work with the under-threes. The city of Salzgitter successfully applied for funding for the training series from the Lower Saxony Institute for Early Childhood Education and Development (nifbe) as part of the Lower Saxony qualification initiative "Working with children up to the age of three".

The application by the city of Salzgitter in cooperation with the AWO Salzgitter-Wolfenbüttel was also successful in the federal initiative "Lernort Praxis". As one of 76 locations nationwide, a project position has been created here for three years under the sponsorship of the AWO, which is intended to improve training in the facilities and counteract the shortage of skilled workers in the facilities. Through targeted programs, the profession of nursery school teacher is made accessible to men, people with a migration background and career changers in particular, and the training is specifically extended to these groups of people.