The voluntary ecological year in Germany (abbreviated FÖJ) is an educational and orientation year for teenagers and young adults of ages 16 through 27. The FÖJ can be attended only once and usually lasts 12 months (from 1 September to 31 August of the following year). This service was accepted as an alternative service to military service during the period of conscription until 2011 and universities accept it as a semester on leave.
The service is financed and realized by the federal states and some agencies. The agencies also organize 5 seminars per year which must be attended by the participant. Apart from that, the participants have to be self organized.
Famous quotes containing the words voluntary, ecological and/or year:
“Men are not therefore put to death, or punished for that their theft proceedeth from election; but because it was noxious and contrary to men’s preservation, and the punishment conducing to the preservation of the rest, inasmuch as to punish those that do voluntary hurt, and none else, frameth and maketh men’s wills such as men would have them.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)
“The question that will decide our destiny is not whether we shall expand into space. It is: shall we be one species or a million? A million species will not exhaust the ecological niches that are awaiting the arrival of intelligence.”
—Freeman Dyson (b. 1923)
“These young women have had four years of very special space.... This has been special space. This has been safe space. But when they graduate, they will begin to deal on a daily basis, all day long, month after month, year after year, with the realities that still haunt our nation.”
—Johnnetta Betsch Cole (b. 1936)