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Educational leave in Hamburg

AI as a Colleague

Five days at the end of which an AI takes over your recurring work. Not as a demo, but set up on your own machine.

Recognition as educational leave under the Hamburg Educational Leave Act has been applied for; the authority has not yet decided. You can still register now: as soon as the decision arrives, you will receive it for your application to your employer. If recognition is not granted, you may withdraw free of charge.

  • Dates

    Monday 26 to Friday 30 October 2026, daily from 9:00 to 16:15. Further date: 1 to 5 March 2027.

  • Scope

    Five days, 30 teaching units of 60 minutes each.

  • Location

    Online as a live video conference with continuous support. You work on your own machine. The course is held in German.

  • Participation

    890 euros per person, group size 6 to 12 people.

What this is about

Most people use AI like a search engine: question in, answer out, and next time they explain everything from scratch again. That does not save time, it only moves it around.

This week takes a different route. You set up an AI the way you would train a new colleague. It receives background knowledge about your work, fixed instructions for recurring tasks, and finally permission to carry out certain steps on its own. What emerges is not a collection of tricks but a workflow that keeps running after the week is over.

Data protection is not an appendix on the final day. Each of the five days contains a dedicated unit on it, because the question of which data may leave your system arises anew at every step.

The five days

Every day ends with something that runs on your machine. From day two onwards you work continuously on a real case from your own working life.

  1. Day 1: Taking stock and setting up

    We sort out which tasks actually consume your time and set up the working environment on your machine. By the end of the day your first context file exists.

  2. Day 2: Context and repeatable instructions

    Your AI learns who you are and how you work. You build your first reusable working instruction for a task that comes up regularly.

  3. Day 3: From suggestion to execution

    The AI gets hands and carries out changes in real systems. You decide where it may act on its own and where your approval remains mandatory.

  4. Day 4: Knowledge base and reproducibility

    Knowledge that only lives in a chat history is gone. You create a searchable store, secure it with version control and start an environment that runs the same way everywhere.

  5. Day 5: Integration, data flow audit and transfer

    The individual parts are chained into a routine. You document where your data flows and leave with a plan for the first 30 days afterwards.

What you take with you

No knowledge held in reserve, but things that actually run:

  • A working environment set up on your own machine
  • A context file recording your role, your projects and the way you work
  • At least one reusable working instruction for a task from your daily routine
  • A continuous workflow that turns raw material into a finished result
  • A written data flow mapping you can take to your data protection officer

Who this is for

For anyone who regularly creates or manages texts, documents, analyses or training material. That means administration, case work, further education, vocational training and consulting. The course is open to all; nobody is excluded.

What you need to bring

  • No programming skills. Genuinely none.
  • Your own computer on which you are allowed to install software. That is the only hard requirement.
  • A willingness to work on a real case of your own rather than on an example.

Applying for educational leave

Educational leave is a statutory entitlement, not a favour from your employer. In Hamburg the following applies:

  • Ten days within two years, based on a five-day working week
  • A minimum of six months with your employer is required
  • The application must reach your employer no later than six weeks before the start

For the October date this means your application should be with your employer by 14 September. You will receive the necessary documents from me as soon as you have registered. If you work in another federal state, get in touch, as the rules differ.

Registration

890 euros per person

including VAT. Invoice to you or directly to your employer, whichever you need.

  • Five days of continuous support in a group of no more than twelve people
  • Permanent access to the accompanying learning environment with all instructions
  • All templates: data minimisation checklists, data flow mapping, transfer plan
  • Certificate of attendance covering 30 teaching units

Send me an email with your name and your preferred date. You will receive the registration confirmation and the documents for your employer in return. A preliminary phone call is always possible if you want to find out whether the course fits your work.

Register by email

Who runs this

Dirk Schulenburg. I teach at a vocational school in Hamburg and am its IT administrator at the same time. What I show during this week I use myself every day: more than twenty interface services and over fifteen interactive learning modules were built this way, during the ongoing operation of a public institution and under its data protection requirements.

I do not represent any particular product. The tools we work with are examples, and I will also tell you where they reach their limits and which tasks are better left to people.

More about me

Educational leave in Hamburg — dirk-schulenburg.net