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Press Release from 2020-09-01 / Group

KfW launches flagship project TUMO Berlin

  • Accenture GmbH is the new operator of the first TUMO centre for digital education in Germany
  • Bechtle Systemhaus Mannheim will be the technology partner providing the centre’s technical equipment
  • The centre’s managing director brings experience in digital education for young people
  • Website berlin.tumo.de is live
  • Opening of the centre planned for November
  • Innovative learning concept based on Armenian model

In time for the start of the new school year, basic requirements have been met to allow the first TUMO centre for digital education for young people in Germany to soon open its doors: both the operators and the centre managing director of TUMO Berlin have been determined. Accenture GmbH was awarded the contract in an EU-wide tender by KfW Group. The technological part of the tender for equipping the ultramodern TUMO centre was won by Bechtle Systemhaus Mannheim.

Pawel Mordel, a well known representative of Berlin’s creative scene, has been secured as managing director of the centre. Most recently, he headed the non-profit educational programme After School Hustle, which he founded for teenagers in Berlin, his home city. In order to familiarise students, parents and teachers with the TUMO concept before the centre in Berlin Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf opens its doors, the website berlin.tumo.de is now live. The opening of TUMO Berlin, where more than 1,000 young people between the ages of 12 and 18 will be able to learn digital techniques and skills free of charge after school, is planned for November.

Dr Ingrid Hengster, member of KfW’s Executive Board: “We are very pleased that our flagship project TUMO is progressing rapidly and that we have been able to find competent and creative partners in Accenture and Pawel Mordel. I am also pleased for Berlin school pupils, who will soon be able to acquire digital skills free of charge and in a modern environment. The benefits of digital education for young people are ultimately felt by all: our society, the economy and companies. We therefore need more such learning centres in Germany and our goal is clear: KfW is looking for more partners to build a nationwide network of digital learning centres.”

For Frank Riemensperger, Chairman of Accenture Germany, TUMO also represents another important step towards more (digital) educational equity: “Education is the future: it didn’t just take the past few months to show us just how important digital skills are. It is no secret that we still have a lot of catching up to do in Germany, especially with regard to educational equity. We must give people the chance to grasp new technologies and not only keep pace with digital change, but also actively help shape it. The need for the corresponding skills will only increase in the future, so we cannot start early enough to get children and young people excited about the world of technology and digitisation. I am therefore very pleased that we at Accenture are the operators of this exciting, extracurricular learning venue and are making a contribution to digital education as a company and a member of society.”

Pawel Mordel, Managing Director of the TUMO centre in Berlin: “Based on my own experience growing up, I appreciate the need for education, including digital education. I taught myself how to write computer programmes, but now the time has come for offerings like TUMO to become the standard. I am excited to be spearheading this development as head of TUMO Berlin. From the years I spent in Berlin’s creative scene, I know first-hand that there are many people who want to work with teenagers in their spare time. That is why I am convinced that a real network of creative minds, educators and young people will form around TUMO Berlin.”

TUMO is an innovative pedagogical learning concept from Armenia: young people between the ages of 12 and 18 learn voluntarily and free of charge digital and creative technologies such as 3D modelling, robotics, programming, as well as film, music and photography in an ultramodern, well-equipped centre after school. TUMO is already being successfully implemented on an international scale, including in Paris, Beirut and Moscow, and has so far reached 19,000 young people.

Marie Lou Papazian, Co-managing Director of TUMO in Armenia, emphasises the uniqueness of TUMO’s course offering: “The programme KfW is starting with is ambitious. It covers the most modern and fastest changing technologies, thereby enabling the careers of the future.”

TUMO Berlin is an initiative of KfW: KfW has concluded a franchise agreement with TUMO Armenia to build the first TUMO centre in Germany and finance the centre for the first five years. Dorothee Bär, Minister of State for Digitalisation at the Federal Chancellery was present at the signing ceremony in January 2020.

KfW is already promoting education in Germany together with the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with its student and education loan and funding for students under the Upgrading Training Assistance Act (AFGB). As promotional bank of the federal and state governments, it is also supporting the process of digital transformation in Germany through various funding programmes for companies and municipalities.

Further information:

TUMO Berlin

TUMO Armenia

Interview with the two TUMO Managing Directors in Armenia on KfW Stories

KfW Education Funding

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Alia Begisheva

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