During the three-year apprenticeship, you will learn about practical work in the activation environment as well as the theoretical principles and work processes. You will attend school up to two days a week, where you will be taught in the following areas:

• Activation therapy
• Activating everyday life
• Career development
• Quality
• Interaction and relationship building
• Knowledge management
• Management and conception of the activation area

On the remaining days of the week, you will either be engaged in self-study or work experience. The school-based training to become an activation specialist is supplemented by block weeks. This is how the part-time activation specialist training works.

After training as an activation specialist, it is possible to work in retirement homes, day care homes, care centers, psychiatric clinics and special clinics. Activation specialists often take on responsible positions with management duties, e.g. as team leaders in institutions where they are responsible for the entire area of activation. The prospects on the job market are good.

The following activities are carried out after continuing education, further training:

• Designing activation offers
  • Building relationships with clients and their relatives and caregivers
  • Offers for individuals or design
  • Provide clients with a daily and weekly structure
  • guide people to actively pursue their own interests and have meaningful experiences
  • Support and encourage people to live and make decisions as independently as possible
  • enable people to feel successful and useful despite limitations
  • Plan and carry out rituals, celebrations and cultural events in institutions
• Carry out activation therapies
  • Gather holistic information on a client's medical history and current life situation
  • Define therapeutic goals and measures
  • Select suitable forms of therapy and create a therapy plan
  • Document and analyze observations, experiences and results of the therapy and adapt further therapy if necessary
  • Advise clients and, if necessary, their relatives on forms of therapy and activities
• Management tasks
  • be responsible for the entire area of activation in an institution
  • Leading teams and planning employee assignments
  • Instruct and train employees
  • coordinate their own activities with those of other professionals in the nursing, care and therapeutic fields
  • Ensuring the flow of information between specialists and specialist agencies

As an activation specialist in continuing education, further training, you have the following options:

• Courses and seminars
  Offers from the Colleges of Higher Education, the Swiss. Association of Activation Specialists SVAT and other educational institutions.
• University of Applied Sciences
  Degree courses in related subject areas, e.g. Bachelor of Arts/Science in Music and Movement, in Social Work, in Occupational Therapy, in Nursing or in Physiotherapy. Different admission requirements apply depending on the University of Applied Sciences.

Training to become an activation specialist teaches you the following:

• Activation therapy
• Individual and group activation
• Activating everyday activities: e.g. techniques in the areas of design, expression, play, music, etc.
• Interaction and relationship building
• Theoretical foundations: e.g. in anatomy and physiology, geriatrics and psychogeriatrics, psychology, sociology, etc.
• Quality assurance, management and interdisciplinary cooperation
• Practical assignments in various institutions and fields of work

You should have the following personal requirements for the activation specialist course:

• Strong contact and communication skills
• Empathy
• Commitment and resilience
• High sense of responsibility
• Ability to lead employees and work in a team
• Good powers of observation
• Organizational and planning talent

After training as an activation specialist, you will work with older people and adults with disabilities or chronic illnesses. Working hours are usually regulated. Activation specialists work closely with other healthcare professionals, such as nurses, doctors and therapists.