Summer School for Grown-Ups

There’s no better time than the present to pick up a new skill, brush up an old one, or simply broaden your after-work and weekend horizons beyond the pub! For enterprising expats in Prague, a number of non-degree courses, seminars, and workshops exist. And while these have traditionally fallen under the category of language and the arts, a variety of interesting educational offerings, everything from coding to crocheting, have come to Prague of late. These are some see of our suggestions for grown-up summer school:

Want to know more about multimedia, take up painting, or learn more about developing websites? Fancy yourself as a marketing guru or want to brush up on aspects of business leadership? Whether you are a current student or have been out of education for a while, this is your chance to spend part of your summer doing something you really love supervised by expert lecturers from Prague College. These specially developed short classes take place four days a week or at weekends, and are designed to deliver learning in a way that allows you to feel real progress, even over a short period of time.

Is there a creative project you’ve been day-dreaming about? Perhaps there’s a chair you’ve been threatening to reupholster or a wobbly table that’s crying out to be fixed? DIY Praha (See our article Meet Prague’s Maker Culture) is a pay-by-the-hour workshop and studio in Vinohrady, complete with tools and professional guidance. A unique concept and valuable resource, ideal for those of us who relocated to Prague without our tool kits, as well as for locals who perhaps don’t have the equipment or space to work from home. DIY also organizes regular classes: Try your hand at welding, silk screening, and woodworking, and more.

The New York Code + Design Academy offers hands-on, intensive workshops in web and mobile app development and UI/UX design (June 16-August 13). Whether you’re a complete beginner or an experienced developer, their suite of part time and full time workshops will help you build your digital skill set. Course offerings include beginner focused workshops in HTML, CSS, Javascript, Ruby/Sinatra/Rails and UX/UI Design, and more advanced workshops in mobile app development (iOS) and advanced web technologies, like AngularJS.

Once you’re perfected your burger and want to take a photo of it for your blog, head over to Chefparade. The popular cooking school recently established a series of “Chefstarter” classes which give instruction to would-be photo bloggers and stylists. Or get back to basics (and impress your Czech friends and in-laws) with a Czech cooking course designed to give foreigners an introduction to the ins and outs of Czech cuisine from fruit dumplings to potato pancakes. Note that food styling and other Chefstarter courses are given in the Czech language.