First VR education center in Lower Saxony opens in Hanover region

Minister of Education Julia Willie Hamburg and Regional President Steffen Krach inaugurate Virtual Reality Education Center (VRECH) at Multi-Media BBS

Haben am Montag der VRECH eröffnet: BBS-Schulleiter Jörg Sönckens, Regionspräsident Steffen Krach, Kultusministerin Julia Willie Hamburg und Wirtschaftsdezernent Ulf-Birger Franz. — Opened the VRECH on Monday: BBS Headmaster Jörg Sönckens, Regional President Steffen Krach, Minister of Education Julia Willie Hamburg and Head of Economic Affairs Ulf-Birger Franz.

Virtual reality - virtual reality. It's a buzzword that many people now have a rough idea of, but without having fully grasped the subject. However, knowledge of this promising technology is important. With this in mind, the Virtual Reality Education Center ("VRECH") has now opened.

The newly created center on the campus of the Multi-Media Vocational Schools on the Expo grounds is now the first port of call when it comes to exploring the fusion of virtual and real worlds and putting it into practice. The VRECH is the first VR education center in Lower Saxony to focus specifically on the use of so-called immersive technologies in education and serves as an experimental, training and event location for schools, companies and the interested public.

"With VRECH, we are putting the Hannover Region at the top of the map in Germany when it comes to the VR training landscape. I am delighted that with this prime example of fruitful cooperation between the state and local authorities, we have the first VR training center in the whole of Lower Saxony in the Hannover Region. In terms of the intensification of training, it is even the first such center in the whole of Germany."

Regional President Steffen Krach emphasizes the nationwide significance of the project

"We want to use the training courses and cooperation formats to further expand the collaboration between vocational schools and companies. In the Hannover Region, we not only have what it takes to be a strong location for robotics, but also to become a hotspot for VR technologies."

Head of Economic Affairs Ulf-Birger Franz

"VRECH is a project that fits perfectly with Multi Media BBS as a competence center for IT and media professions. Teachers have the opportunity to be trained here for the use of VR in the classroom and can network with trainers and teachers from all over the country. The technology can be tested by our teachers in the classroom. Our students work with VR as users, but also as designers in the new training occupation of designer for immersive media, which will be taught at the Multi Media BBS from August 2023."

Jörg Sönckens, Headmaster of the Multi-Media BBS

The Virtual Reality Education Center Hannover ("VRECH") is the first pilot project of the Strategic Advisory Board for the Promotion of Digitalization at Vocational Schools (BBSn). The aims of this committee, which was founded by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs and the Hannover Region, are to identify needs with regard to key technologies, especially at BBSn, to promote the implementation of these technologies in vocational education and training and to initiate projects in schools and training companies - with success!

In May 2022, the VRECH - Virtual Reality Education Center Hannover was founded at the Multi-Media Vocational Schools of the Hannover Region. VRECH is the first education center in the whole of Lower Saxony to focus specifically on the use of immersive technologies in education. The target groups are primarily (vocational) schools, but also training companies in the Hannover region and throughout Lower Saxony.

Provision of a virtual reality experimentation room at the Multi-Media BBS in the Hanover region, including opportunities to try out and learn various software and hardware required for VR.
Development of training courses and events for teachers and trainers to raise awareness of the technology and enable the target group to independently integrate augmented reality ("XR") into lessons and training.
Development and provision of XR catalogs for schools as well as publicizing and networking with other XR initiatives in Lower Saxony and Germany.

The VRECH - Virtual Reality Education Center is a cooperation project of the Hannover Region (Department of Economic and Employment Promotion and Department of Schools), the Multi-Media Vocational Schools of the Hannover Region and the Lower Saxony State Institute for School Quality Development (NLQ). The project is supported by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs.

Interested schools, companies and multipliers can now find out more about the VRECH program at www.vrech-hannover.deüber.