A Höhere Technische Lehranstalt (German for ''Higher Technical Education Institute'', or more loosely translated ''Technical College''), commonly known as HTL, is an engineering-focused
high school
A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...
/institution of further education in
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
. As an
umbrella term
Hypernymy and hyponymy are the wikt:Wiktionary:Semantic relations, semantic relations between a generic term (''hypernym'') and a more specific term (''hyponym''). The hypernym is also called a ''supertype'', ''umbrella term'', or ''blanket term ...
it is used for either
* Höhere Technische Lehranstalt (HTL, HTLA),
* Höhere Technische Bundeslehranstalt (HTBLA, HTBL, Federal Higher Technical Institute), or
* Höhere Technische Bundeslehr- und Versuchsanstalt (HTBLuVA, Federal Higher Technical Institute for Education and Experimentation).
These institutions are an important part of Austrian
vocational education
Vocational education is education that prepares people for a skilled craft. Vocational education can also be seen as that type of education given to an individual to prepare that individual to be gainfully employed or self employed with req ...
. HTLs specialise in disciplines such as
civil engineering
Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...
,
electronics
Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...
,
electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
,
information technology
Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...
,
informatics
Informatics is the study of computational systems. According to the Association for Computing Machinery, ACM Europe Council and Informatics Europe, informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession, in which the centra ...
,
industrial engineering
Industrial engineering (IE) is concerned with the design, improvement and installation of integrated systems of people, materials, information, equipment and energy. It draws upon specialized knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical, an ...
,
mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...
,
mechatronics
Mechatronics engineering, also called mechatronics, is the synergistic integration of mechanical, electrical, and computer systems employing mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, electronic engineering and computer engineering, and also ...
and
chemistry
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
. There are 75 HTLs in Austria (as of 2016).
HTLs also existed in
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
until 1995 when these institutions were converted into Swiss
Universities of Applied Sciences.
Types of Courses
Höhere Technische Lehranstalten generally offer four different types of courses:
* ''Höhere Abteilung'' (
ISCED level 5) offers the most common type of courses at Austrian HTLs. The courses last five years and start with grade 9. After five years, students may complete the curriculum with a ''Diplomarbeit'', a final graded project that requires several hundred hours of work. After that, a student has to pass a comprehensive examination: one written test in mathematics, an exam in a main technical subject, at least one in a language (German or English) and the final oral examinations. This is called ''Reife- und Diplomprüfung'' since the Austrian ''Reifeprüfung'' (
Matura
or its translated terms (''mature'', ''matur'', , , , , ', ) is a Latin name for the secondary school exit exam or "maturity diploma" in various European countries, including Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech ...
) is an integral part of it and graduates are formally enabled to attend university. This type of education has a number of similarities to Japanese colleges of technology (
Kōsen). After three years of work experience in engineering, graduates can apply for the Austrian professional title ''Ingenieur'' (
pre-nominal letters: Ing.), literally
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...
, and considered equivalent to a bachelor's degree according to the
European Qualifications Framework
The European Qualifications Framework (EQF) acts as a translation device to make national qualifications more readable across Europe, promoting workers' and learners' mobility between countries and facilitating their lifelong learning. The EQF ...
(
ISCED level 6 then).
* ''Fachschule'' (
ISCED level 3) courses last four years and start with grade 9. After four years, students have to complete a ''Technikerarbeit'' (a final examination project) and then pass the final examinations to graduate from HTL. Students can also attend the examinations for the ''Berufsreifeprüfung'', but these examinations are voluntary. The Berufsreifeprüfung formally enables students to attend university.
* The so-called ''Abendschule'' (evening school) offers a type of course that is very similar to the ''Höhere Abteilung'' and intended for people who want to study while they work. These courses are organized in 8 semesters and are completed with a ''Reife- und Diplomprüfung'' just like the ''Höhere Abteilung''.
* The fourth type of courses at HTLs are special
post-secondary
Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education.
The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational schools ...
courses for students who have completed an
apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulat ...
, are
master craftsmen or graduated from
Gymnasium with Matura. These types of courses are also offered at the ''Höhere Abteilungen'' and end with the same qualifications as the five-year courses.
HTLs
* The largest HTL in Austria with 3.500 students is the HTBLuVA
Mödling
Mödling () is the capital of the Austrian Mödling (district), district of the same name located approximately 15 km south of Vienna.
Mödling lies in Lower Austria's industrial zone (Industrieviertel). The Mödlingbach, a brook which rises ...
, which is also the largest school in Europe.
* The oldest Austrian vocational school is the ''HTBLuVA Wien 5 Spengergasse'' in
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
, established in 1758 by
Maria Theresia.
* The HTBLVA TGM (Technologisches Gewerbe Museum) in Vienna has the highest school building in Austria (about 70m, 16 floors).
* The HTBLVA TGM also has the largest base area of any HTL in Austria.
Höhere Technische Lehranstalten in Austria
See also
*
Education in Austria
*
List of universities in Austria
External links
www.bildungssystem.at– Information about the Austrian educational system
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hohere Technische Lehranstalt
Engineering education
Vocational education in Austria
School types
Vocational education in Switzerland