Language learning support

High-quality courses from top universities

Skill booster programs to prepare for the job market

Benefits Kiron offers to students:

Let’s create the future together and empower the next generation of change-makers.

preview_image-campusInfo-1661157787437.svg

large_image-studyTracks-1661157662928.jpg

mac_image-studyTracks-1661157662928.jpg

medium_image-studyTracks-1661157662928.jpg

small_image-studyTracks-1661157662928.jpg

thumbnail_image-studyTracks-1661157662928.jpg

xlarge_image-studyTracks-1661157662928.jpg

image-studyTracks-1661157662928.jpg

large_image-appChecklist-1661157705098.jpg

mac_image-appChecklist-1661157705098.jpg

medium_image-appChecklist-1661157705098.jpg

small_image-appChecklist-1661157705098.jpg

thumbnail_image-appChecklist-1661157705098.jpg

image-appChecklist-1661157705098.jpg

large_image-ChangeMyGoal-1661157741418.jpg

mac_image-ChangeMyGoal-1661157741418.jpg

medium_image-ChangeMyGoal-1661157741418.jpg

small_image-ChangeMyGoal-1661157741418.jpg

thumbnail_image-ChangeMyGoal-1661157741418.jpg

xlarge_image-ChangeMyGoal-1661157741418.jpg

image-ChangeMyGoal-1661157741418.jpg

– Get in touch

Partner with us!

We know you are passionate about driving real innovation to address pressing societal and environmental challenges. So are we. 
Find out how we bring learning resources to communities worldwide to create a more connected, more equal world through digital solutions.

small_image-MainTitleImage-1661157652836.jpg

thumbnail_image-MainTitleImage-1661157652836.jpg

image-MainTitleImage-1661157652836.jpg

Empowering underserved communities through digital innovation

The future of work is digital and digital literacy and 21st-century skills are vital for labour market integration and success.

small_image-RegionalPrograms-1661157633961.jpg

thumbnail_image-RegionalPrograms-1661157633961.jpg

image-RegionalPrograms-1661157633961.jpg

Help us to prepare refugees for the 21st-century job market

Digital education for the future of work

In recent years, Kiron has become the expert for digital high-quality education.

large_image-christian-wiediger-70ku6P7kgmc-unsplash-1661157633959.jpg

mac_image-christian-wiediger-70ku6P7kgmc-unsplash-1661157633959.jpg

medium_image-christian-wiediger-70ku6P7kgmc-unsplash-1661157633959.jpg

small_image-christian-wiediger-70ku6P7kgmc-unsplash-1661157633959.jpg

thumbnail_image-christian-wiediger-70ku6P7kgmc-unsplash-1661157633959.jpg

xlarge_image-christian-wiediger-70ku6P7kgmc-unsplash-1661157633959.jpg

image-christian-wiediger-70ku6P7kgmc-unsplash-1661157633959.jpg

Reach thousands of learners worldwide through online education

Creating personalised learning environments

The time for Climate Action is now. Until 2050, more than 200 million people will be forced to flee due to the impact of a changing climate so refugees are not only disproportionately affected by climate change, they will also play a crucial role in the fight against it.

small_image-ShortProgramImage-1661157633958.jpg

thumbnail_image-ShortProgramImage-1661157633958.jpg

image-ShortProgramImage-1661157633958.jpg

Empower underserved communities to become change-makers 

Digital solutions for the Climate Crisis

On Kiron Campus, our online learning platform, students have access to free online study programs. Here they can also connect with a global student community.

Discover Kiron Campus

I want to open a business of my own, maybe using my paintings, and I feel that the courses that I take give me a better idea of how I want to run things in the future. 

Kiron & Accenture 

Partners

Meet our students

This category for select community posts for landing pages slider

Project insights

large_blog_image-IMG_8063-1661157437589.jpg

mac_blog_image-IMG_8063-1661157437589.jpg

medium_blog_image-IMG_8063-1661157437589.jpg

small_blog_image-IMG_8063-1661157437589.jpg

thumbnail_blog_image-IMG_8063-1661157437589.jpg

xlarge_blog_image-IMG_8063-1661157437589.jpg

blog_image-IMG_8063-1661157437589.jpg

Framing the issue
The H&amp;M Foundation and Kiron’s targeted project, “Building a Learning Environment for Study Success (BLESS)”, is responsible for creating an innovative and supportive learning environment for refugees to achieve study success. Kiron provides high-quality online study programs in various fields to refugees and underserved communities worldwide, for free. One of the key obstacles to online study, is providing the students with a sense of community with each other, and the BLESS project sought to tackle this with a multi-pronged approach: creating study groups, making design changes, and organizing seminal events that students could really engage in. The BLESS project created even more new, innovative ways to bring the community together and generate academic and cultural discussions.
Bisher’s story
Since arriving in Germany four years ago at the age of 19, Bisher has been pursuing his academic and professional goals in the field of information technology. Originally from Damascus, Syria’s capital city, Bisher had to leave a few month’s shy of attaining his high school diploma. “Due to that, it was quite impossible for me to find a university place… I decided to join an apprenticeship scheme instead and do it for three years so that then I will have the ability to study at a university.” 
Finding an apprenticeship was not easy and once in, participating also brought its own challenges.

Bisher is now in the third year of his apprenticeship at Oberstufen Centre for IT and Medical Technology.
He discovered Kiron through a friend’s Facebook post and began taking online courses through the platform to complement what he was learning at his apprenticeship. His first course was an introduction to open source software environment, where he learned the basics in Structured Query Language (SQL). “There are some things that I never had an idea about. For example Linux. So through the course, I got a little closer to Linux and learned how to do basic stuff.”
As well as his mother tongue, Arabic, Bisher speaks excellent English and German and is a highly motivated student &#8211; subsequent to his introductory IT courses, he took on Kiron Campus, additionally he took part in Google IT MOOCs nine-month program, which was also available on the Kiron Campus, on top of his existing student workload at his IT apprenticeship.
This free program was “really important for me and for my future because I&#8217;m studying IT right now,” Bisher says. “I need a certificate for this course. So I connected with Andreas, the person in charge of the Google IT MOOCs program at Kiron and he invited me to the office to get a better idea of what to expect.” 
 
Bisher is almost eighty percent through with his Google IT MOOCs course load and “it must be finished!&#8230; I will add everything to my CV to make it much better.” He believes that programs like this can greatly achieve his chances in the job market, because “everything is related to each other”. He also says that it’s an advantage of course “that it will be certified from a famous company (Google) and everything is official. With that, I can provide something professional to employers.” 
Finding this perseverance was not always easy, Bisher reflects, but he credits his offline tutor, Marty and the community around him to help him keep going. “I had the opportunity to give feedback to others and receive feedback for my work &#8211; this is really important. I also really like the offline courses with my tutor Marty where we discuss the topics we have trouble with.”

The future
Bisher’s future looks bright. He’s currently finishing his studies and he will begin an internship at Kiron’s own IT department in November, which he is very excited about. After June, when his internship finishes, he plans on finding a place in university to continue his studies in the field of IT.

Story of change: Bisher

Case studies and projects

https://kiron.staging.trixcode.io/kiron/uploads/blog_image_Volkswagen_Projekt_1657883936590_cea09c1772.jpg

large_https://kiron.staging.trixcode.io/kiron/uploads/blog_image_Volkswagen_Projekt_1657883936590_cea09c1772.jpg

mac_https://kiron.staging.trixcode.io/kiron/uploads/blog_image_Volkswagen_Projekt_1657883936590_cea09c1772.jpg

medium_https://kiron.staging.trixcode.io/kiron/uploads/blog_image_Volkswagen_Projekt_1657883936590_cea09c1772.jpg

small_https://kiron.staging.trixcode.io/kiron/uploads/blog_image_Volkswagen_Projekt_1657883936590_cea09c1772.jpg

thumbnail_https://kiron.staging.trixcode.io/kiron/uploads/blog_image_Volkswagen_Projekt_1657883936590_cea09c1772.jpg

xlarge_https://kiron.staging.trixcode.io/kiron/uploads/blog_image_Volkswagen_Projekt_1657883936590_cea09c1772.jpg

The Project 
Since 2016, the Volkswagen Group and Kiron have been cooperating to support refugees on their pathway to higher education. In an effort to provide Kiron students with professional opportunities while studying or early on in their working careers, Volkswagen has organized a range of workshops on relevant topics such as job market access, integration and women empowerment. With this project, we especially want to promote better access for refugee women with an interest in STEM subjects, to the German higher education and labor market.  
Impact
The jointly-developed professional guidance program was developed especially with female refugee students in mind, with the aim to foster exchange between the students and Volkswagen employees. One of the highlights of the program was the kick-off workshop at the Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg, where participants visited the Volkswagen site, met the VfL women’s soccer team, and took part in an intercultural workshop. In 2018, the second round of the program came to a close, and in total, twenty-eight Kiron students and Volkswagen employees participated.

Period: December 2016 – December 2020
Since 2016, Volkswagen Group and Kiron Open Higher Education have been cooperating to support refugees in their pathway to higher education. As part of the collaboration, Volkswagen has initially funded 100 study places for Kiron students. A particular focus of this mutual effort is on the STEM study fields: computer science and mechanical engineering.
In efforts to provide Kiron students with enhanced opportunities prior to and early on in their professional careers, Volkswagen has collaborated on a multitude of endeavors including aiding refugee students through <a href="https://www.volkswagenag.com/de/news/refugee-aid/2017/110/visionaerer-studierenden-workshop---integration-im-wedding.html">integration workshops.</a>
In continuum, a recent <a href="https://www.volkswagenag.com/de/news/stories/2017/12/volkswagen-guides-show-refugees-the-way.html">professional guidance program</a> (“Lotsenprogramm”) was piloted with the aim of fostering exchange between refugee students and Volkswagen employees. The majority of Volkswagen guides are recent graduates and doctoral students, enabling information sharing about either the recently finished studies or the starting of a working career in Germany from a familiar young-minded perspective. Furthermore, Volkswagen offered pre-study internships which are obligatory for studying Mechanical Engineer at several German universities.

<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-353 size-full" src="https://kiron.flywheelsites.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Picture2.jpg" alt="" width="824" height="462" srcset="https://kiron.flywheelsites.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Picture2.jpg 824w, https://kiron.flywheelsites.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Picture2-300x168.jpg 300w, https://kiron.flywheelsites.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Picture2-768x431.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 824px) 100vw, 824px" />
Volkswagen guides and Kiron students
&#8220;Volkswagen supports students not only with 100 study places, particularly focusing on the MINT study field, but moreover enables mentoring and guidance by Volkswagen employees, as well as internship opportunities giving insight and perspective into daily work, becoming familiar with our subject-specific issues. This is how we accompany dedicated prospective academics along their path of professional development.&#8221;
Ariane Kilian, Coordinator of Volkswagen Group Refugee Support, Volkswagen Group
&#8220;We are happy to be able to encourage and support dedicated young professionals in their journey towards obtaining an academic degree. Due to the high technical qualification requirements in the automotive industry, this path helps lead to high standards of language skills and certified educational qualifications. As such, we progress to strengthen these two components over the long term and continue our commitment to working with refugees in the coming years. I will also be raising this subject during the information exchange discussion with Angela Merkel this evening.&#8221;
Dr. Karlheinz Blessing, Management Board, Human Resources &amp; Organization, Volkswagen Group

Our partner: Volkswagen

large_blog_image-iStock-636350616-1080x675-1661157437724.jpg

medium_blog_image-iStock-636350616-1080x675-1661157437724.jpg

small_blog_image-iStock-636350616-1080x675-1661157437724.jpg

thumbnail_blog_image-iStock-636350616-1080x675-1661157437724.jpg

blog_image-iStock-636350616-1080x675-1661157437724.jpg

<ol>
<li>What motivates SDW to support refugees on their path to higher education?</li>
</ol>
All SDW activities aim at providing young people with the best possible conditions for a successful start in fulfilling professional careers. Hence, we support the participants of our programs in reaching their full potential.
It is particularly important for us to advance entrepreneurial thinking and socially responsible action. We also encourage our participants to reflect on their personal development.
In all these endeavors, we strive to reflect the diversity of our society and thereby increase open access to education in Germany. It is therefore essential for us that refugees can participate in our programs.
<ol start="2">
<li>How does SDW support Kiron students?</li>
</ol>
SDW’s core focus is our Klaus Murmann scholarship program. It is the fifth-largest of thirteen Support Foundations for talented individuals (Begabtenförderungswerke) in Germany with roughly 1,900 active scholarship recipients and 4,000 alumni today.
The Klaus Murmann Scholarship is awarded to academically gifted university students and doctoral candidates from all fields of study. Kiron students who successfully complete our selection process are awarded this scholarship.
They receive both financial support and access to our comprehensive, supplemental educational curriculum until their graduation with a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree. In addition, they are active members of their local, self-organized foundation chapters.
<ol start="3">
<li> When did the cooperation start? What common goals do SDW and Kiron share?</li>
</ol>
The cooperation between Kiron and SDW started in 2016 when the initial Kiron founders’ team participated in our project “Herausforderung Unternehmertum”, or “Challenge Entrepreneurship”.
This project awards financial support to teams that are in the planning phase of their venture. Furthermore, it offers young founders the qualifications that they need to finalize the concept of their venture for initial implementation.
Kiron and SDW share a commitment to entrepreneurial thinking as well as socially responsible action with a particular focus on leadership, team spirit and networking.
<ol start="4">
<li>What role does education play in the process of integration?</li>
</ol>
Access to education, as well as educational measures that take into account individual situations and developments are crucial to the process of integration.
<ol start="5">
<li>What do Kiron students think about SDW support &amp; Kiron?</li>
</ol>
Seven Kiron students who were successfully accepted by SDW for a scholarship in 2017 shared their experiences with the program:
Moataz from Syria studies International Marketing Management at the Berlin School of Economics and Law. 
I studied business administration for three semesters in Syria and one semester at Kiron. Since October 2017, I have been studying at BAU University in Berlin and obtained my bachelor degree this year.
I’m now doing my masters in International Marketing Management at HWR Berlin.
Kiron has shaped my future and helped me to continue my studies again. In addition, SDW offered me networks, events to go to, and professional advice. Kiron helped me and SDW continues to support me in achieving my academic goals.
Dania from Damascus studies Computer Science at the University of Kaiserslautern. 
When I came to Germany, I had to wait a long time until I could find a place in a German course. I studied Computer Science in Syria for 3 years and at Kiron I learned a new course. I had access to many websites that have resources for learning German, so I was able to improve my German faster.
In April 2017, I was able to get a place in a DSH course at the University of Kaiserslautern and because I had studied in my country for more than 3 semesters, I could not get a student grant. SDW invited me to events in various fields, in which I got to know many people and was able to seek professional advice. I was lucky because Kiron and SDW gave me the opportunity to reach my goal to continue my studies in Germany.
Aghyad from Syria studies Computer Science at the Lübeck University of Applied Sciences. 
I am Aghyad, and I come from Syria. 
I started my study preparation with Kiron in 2016 and began my studies in September last year. Kiron helped me understand what the European learning system is like and how to start.
For any normal student, knowledge is not enough to plan the next step and be ready for real life challenges. One needs more specific contacts to improve one’s skills and career, more awareness of the job market after graduation, and, of course, integrated support. I got all of these benefits through my scholarship from the SDW.
Many thanks to Kiron and for SDW, they refreshed my hopes and dreams again.
Ahmad from Aleppo studies Business Informatics at the University of Rostock. 
I am Ahmad, and I come from Syria. In Syria, I studied Computer Science for only one semester because the war in Syria prevented me from completing my studies. That’s why I thought about coming to Germany to build my future. But there were some big challenges: learning the German language, registering at a German university, getting an overview of the German university learning system and financing myself along with countless other questions. Then, I registered with Kiron which helped me to answer my questions and paved the way for my studies.
SDW scholarships have helped me integrate into Germany, make new contacts, and gain new experience through the seminars they offer. In addition, SDW has helped me better understand the German job market. In the end I would like to thank Kiron and SDW for helping me to realize my goals and dreams.
Wafaa from Damascus studies Business Administration at the University of Duisburg-Essen. 
My dream is to found a film production company and school. I am in my second semester of Business Administration studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen after previously studying with Kiron for about 2 years. I travel, dance, learn piano, read books, discuss a lot and I am always ready to participate.
I participate in the intercultural projects of Silent University as well as various theaters and youth centers in the Ruhr area. My mottos are, “I am not for one population or nationality, but I am international, multicultural for all people” and “love is the most important thing in life”.
Nadeem from Aleppo studies Business Informatics at the University of Rostock. 
I came to Germany to continue my studies. That’s why I first decided to contact Kiron, which worked out very well.
I did a few modules at Kiron to start my master’s at the University of Rostock. After that, I got the scholarship from SDW, which has totally supported me.
I hope I can continue my studies successfully and find the right job afterwards. In the future I am also thinking of starting my own company with some friends.
Loai from Damascus studies Business Administration at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg. 
For many, integration is a term that means mastering the language, working/studying and having a few friends. But for me, it means being able to use all my skills and strengths so that I am active and reliable in the society I live in.
Through small experiences, such as always turning to a Kironista with questions and planning seminars with my SDW Regional Group, my abilities have grown exponentially. I have no doubt that something big will come out of this.
Thanks to SDW (Foundation of German Business) for supporting our talented students!

Foundation of German Business supports Kiron students