GLAD 20 YEARS - Flipbook - Page 22
Glad
Vocational
School
Offering education was an early idea shared by Mikkel Holmbäck and Henrik Marentius, a two-year
course, tailored to the individual youth within a string of subject areas. The two applied for – and
were granted - funds from the special initiative government fund to develop a vocational youth
education. So, in 2004 Glad Vocational School opened offering education in the fields of TV/video,
music, graphic production and animation. In 2007, a law was passed that gave people with disabilities
the right to three years of education.
The school has been afloat ever since, even though pupils are referred from municipalities on an
annual basis, so you never know conditions more than six or twelve months ahead. Currently, the
school offers education within the fields of media, kitchen, janitor, theatre, zoo keeper, animation,
landscape gardening, workmen and a green course.
“Glad were forerunners in creating this education, even before it became law that youth with
special needs have the right to education,” explains Christina Barr, former leader at the special
needs education. Many pupils have graduated from Glad’s educations, and quite a few have since
been employed; e.g. Anders Jensby, 30, who works as sound and video editor in the media-desk.
Anders Jensby: “I had always wanted to work with sound, so in 2009 I enrolled at Glad Vocational
School’s radio department. When I graduated three years later, I had become so proficient that I
was hired as a subject teacher at the school.” Subsequently, Anders Jensby enrolled in a ‘normal’
technical school to become film and TV assistant, and he now holds a flexible job at Glad Media.
“This flex-job enables me to work with things that I like. Had it not been for Glad Media I probably
wouldn’t have worked with TV and sound today,” says Anders Jensby. “The flexible job position has
made me believe that I am actually capable, and that I’m good at my job. It’s a huge boost to my
self-confidence.”
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