About “Pflege Zukunft Wien”

According to a current survey conducted on behalf of the Dachverband Wiener Sozialeinrichtungen (Umbrella Association of Viennese Social Institutions) a further 9,000 nursing and care professionals will be needed in Vienna by 2030. At the same time, the healthcare and nursing profession struggles with its image. Against this background, the City of Vienna has launched a large-scale initiative to redress the situation. Implementing their political mandate, the Fonds Soziales Wien (Vienna Social Fund), FH Campus Wien and the Wiener Gesundheitsverbund (Vienna Hospital Association) have joined forces and established the “Pflege Zukunft Wien” education and training initiative with the aim of meeting the high demand for healthcare and nursing in Vienna while assuring a high quality of education and training in this field.

Measures to accomplish this goal include creating a permeable education and training system which is flexible in terms of content and time and improving the general conditions of education and training in this area. Furthermore, an information campaign, which has been started in autumn 2021, puts the professional quality and the diversity of nursing and care services at the centre and wants to raise the profile of the nursing and care profession. The aim is to make more people choose a job in healthcare and nursing in the future.

Both Fonds Soziales Wien Bildungszentrum and several institutions of the Wiener Gesundheitsverbund (WIGEV – Vienna Hospital Association) offer training programmes for care assistants and specialist care assistants. The “Pflege Zukunft Wien” education and training initiative will create 750 additional training places for care assistants and specialist care assistants at FSW Bildungszentrum.

Since autumn 2020, FSW Bildungszentrum, together with its educational partners, has offered a new education and training programme in nursing and care which combines vocational training with a higher secondary education and is completed by taking the university entrance exam (“Pflege mit Matura”). The opening of a new school site in Erdbergstrasse has provided the required space to accommodate the expansion of training places.

As a long-standing and experienced provider of theoretical and practical training in the healthcare sector, the Wiener Gesundheitsverbund, in cooperation with the FH Campus Wien university of applied sciences, offers a Bachelor’s degree programme in healthcare and nursing. Under the “Pflege Zukunft Wien” initiative 810 additional places for graduate healthcare and nursing professionals have been created at the FH Campus Wien. Starting in 2024, 1,400 programme places will be gradually bundled in one location at the newly built House of Health Sciences of the Wiener Gesundheitsverbund on the premises of the FH Campus Wien.

The education and training initiative is part of the “Pflege Zukunft Wien” process, which is coordinated by the Dachverband Wiener Sozialeinrichtungen and integrates all efforts in the field of nursing and care.