Europaschule Utbremen: leading the way in vocational training
Europaschule Utbremen combines education with real-world innovation. The school’s 1,850 students are supported by 155 teachers across four core areas: IT, business, natural sciences and foreign languages.
Leading the charge is Malte Menzel, an economics and project management expert who drives curriculum development and school-wide initiatives. Malte is dedicated to ensuring students’ learning extends beyond the textbooks — and for this, he needs the right tools. Since 2021, MeisterTask has been part of the school’s tech stack, helping students and teachers manage projects with clarity and confidence.
Connecting the theoretical framework with the practical aspects of the subject is essential for our students, and having a digital tool like MeisterTask is crucial in making this connection. It’s the best solution for us, helping prepare our students for the real world.
Malte Menzel
Teacher of economics, Europaschule Utbremen
The challenge: students’ potential limited by rigid project management
At Europaschule Utbremen, project management plays a key role in the curriculum. In IT, middle school students are required to complete a vocational project, and business students take on a final-year project as part of their graduation assessment. Both involve real-world challenges that demand structure, teamwork and clear communication.
“Our students have embarked on numerous ambitious ventures, from organizing a DKMS charity run to hosting a career information day and even orchestrating a benefit concert featuring two bands in the city.”
Before introducing MeisterTask, students relied on cumbersome processes like creating work breakdown structures in Microsoft Word or Excel to manage their projects. With key details split across multiple files, they often struggled to keep track — let alone stay on schedule.
“Students lacked a holistic project overview, which made accurate and informed project planning difficult. And, because they didn’t have the full picture, they struggled to understand the larger purpose of their tasks.”
It wasn’t just the students who were at a disadvantage. Malte explains that for teachers, the lack of transparency into how the project developed and who contributed to which parts made grading difficult.
“There was no way to track problems that arose during the project or how they were resolved, unless they were documented in the meeting minutes — which wasn’t always the case. Ensuring individual grades were awarded fairly required a lot of manual effort and attention to detail.”
The solution: simple, transparent project management with MeisterTask
After bumping into a former student — who was shocked to discover the school was still stuck using Word and Excel for project management — Malte decided to instigate a change. The former student was using Trello in their workplace, and highlighted the benefits of having a simple tool which supports Kanban methodology.
Malte tried out Trello and Asana first, but neither tool provided what the school really needed.
“Trello was too limited for our needs. It wasn’t optimized for file storage and if students uploaded something there, it was difficult to find it later. And we quickly realized that Asana wasn’t right for us either because it was too complex.”
For Malte, it also essential that their new project management tool was easy to use so it could be implemented quickly.
Security was another key consideration. The school is subject to the Bremen Senatorial Authority, which requires strict security compliance. U.S. based tools are not permitted as they fall below European security standards. MeisterTask — with its GDPR certification and rigorous security features — was therefore an obvious choice.
“My colleagues were up and running with MeisterTask after just 45 minutes of training — even my less tech-savvy colleagues found it easy to understand. And the students got to grips with it even quicker. MeisterTask strikes exactly the right balance between functionality and ease of use.”
MeisterTask was a big help for one particular student venture: staging a musical. Using MeisterTask to manage the project, the students were able to plan and organize the performance, bringing together actors, musicians and singers from an English partner school. Over 400 visitors were invited over 4 dates, so there was a lot to organize.
“We had a relatively large number of tasks to complete outside of school, such as making arrangements directly at the venue or visiting the instrument rental shop. The students were able to manage their tasks on-site via the MeisterTask app, which was a big advantage.”
Project information, files and photos were linked in tasks, so students could always easily find and share everything in the follow-up meetings with the teachers. This new process was much more flexible and efficient.
The school currently uses 20 business licenses for the teaching staff, which are shared internally.
“I can deactivate licenses for colleagues who have just completed projects and reassign them to others. As budget is always a consideration in the education sector, this cost-effective way of working is incredibly helpful. It’s one of the many reasons I chose MeisterTask.”
For the students, the free basic version of MeisterTask, which includes 3 projects, is sufficient.
“Although our students only need one project for their assignment, they often use the remaining two for organizing their coursework, or even personal projects — and we encourage it. Many students continue using MeisterTask when they start their careers.”
The outcome: project admin reduced by 70%, meeting duration slashed by 90%
Today, the teachers and students at Europaschule Utbremen navigate school projects with ease and transparency.
“Project details are no longer a mystery. Each student is accountable for their contributions and this is clearly documented in the tool for the teachers to review. Grading has become much easier as a result.”
Post-project feedback echoes this sentiment, with teachers and students praising MeisterTask’s simplicity and usability.
“We’re seeing consistently positive results. My colleagues keep telling me that MeisterTask makes their day-to-day work so much smoother.”
For Malte, the value lies in the transparency that now exists throughout the entire project process.
“MeisterTask is a safety net for the teachers. We can keep track of students’ project progress and intervene promptly if needed, or even just offer support and guidance to help them succeed.”
A huge advantage of MeisterTask for Malte is the amount of time it saves. This is due to project work being better organized, accessible and clearly documented.
“Project meetings used to take a long time, often running for up to two hours. It was the main way we shared information. Now we have MeisterTask, I only need a 10-minute meeting with each group as I always have the project overview to hand.”
Time spent on project organization has also been cut in half, allowing teachers to focus on more meaningful work.
“There is no comparable tool on the market that allows you to manage projects so easily and efficiently. I highly recommend it.”
