Four hours of lessons daily – how PROMOS consult is dealing with corona-related remote work and school closures

The schools – which have not arrived in the digital age by a long shot – send sheets of assignments by e-mail. Parents are then obligated to work through these with their children. The home environment lacks structure for school-age children. At the same time, one has a video conference coming up with an important customer, and lunch is still not on the table. For families with working parents and school-age children, the “corona holidays” are proving to be a real stress test.

In order to provide its employees with the best support possible, the Berlin IT service provider PROMOS consult is now offering a very special service: the first company-run online school! Nine teachers, five classes, four hours of lessons daily in thirteen subjects.

Jens Kramer, CEO of PROMOS consult, suddenly had the idea for an online school while jogging one weekend. “I first called our chief financial officer and spoke with her about the idea. She loved it, so we decided to immediately implement the project.”

Jens Kramer continues: “We reacted to the corona crisis quite early with preventative safety measures. The infrastructure for remote work was already in place and established in the company. It was nice to see how the switch to online work in our company happened with a strong momentum of its own. I personally find it remarkable how all our employees are handling this new situation with a great capacity to learn and change. But I also noticed the areas in which people are pushed to their limits. I have four children, two of whom are still school-age. It is simply impossible to simultaneously work and teach children German, English and maths, no matter how many clever articles one reads on the topic.”

The employees welcomed the idea with open arms. Within 24 hours, over 90 percent of the employees with school-age children had sent positive feedback, expressing great interest in the idea. Even employees with no school-age children have praised this special project. Mr Kramer reports: “The hugely positive feedback and gratitude we received motivated us to get this project up and going right away.” The teachers and lesson plans were in place within just three days. Starting in April, the “PROMOS kids” in years one to seven will receive instruction online in everything from maths to art.

Mr Kramer sums up: “As the saying goes, extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. As IT service providers, we are once proving our capability to react quickly and flexibly. I hope that many of the processes initiated during this time will also be retained in the future to create a modern, efficient (working) world. This is a great chance to relieve our employees while simultaneously getting kids excited about alternative learning methods beyond the blackboard”, and adds with a laugh: “Our example can naturally serve as a lesson of its own to other companies.”