FAS | Framhaldsskólinn í Austur-Skaftafellssýslu
The upper secondary school, Framhaldsskólinn í Austur-Skaftafellssýslu (FAS – FAS | Framhaldsskólinn í Austur-Skaftafellssýslu) is a small, but proud partner in the PEAK project. The student’s number in the autumn of 2021 is 240 students. The school is located on the south-east coast of Iceland in the fishing village of Höfn in Hornafjörður (English | Hornafjörður (hornafjordur.is)). The school is not located in a mountainous area though PEAK is aimed to work with entrepreneurs in such areas. Actually, the mountainous areas of Iceland are inhabitable, but the location of Höfn is quite isolated so that makes up for it location by the seashore. The population of the village is close to 1800 and the village is about 450 km away from the capital, Reykjavík. The isolation of the village is because of its geographical location, the municipality of Hornafjörður reaches over a long and narrow habitable line between the Atlantic Ocean in the south and the unhabitable mountains and the greatest glacier in Europe, Vatnajökull glacier, in the north. The next urban area to the east (Djúpivogur) is 100 km away and the closest one to the west (Kirkjubæjarklaustur) is 200 km away. The main industry in the town is fishing, fish processing and tourism that has been growing substantially the last years.
FAS is situated in the multi-purpose building of Nýheimar (English – Nýheimar (nyheimar.is)) that also houses one of The University of Iceland’s Research Centres, The Hornafjordur Regional Research Centre (HRRC) – Research Centre Hornafjörður | University of Iceland (hi.is)), A Lifelong Learning center (Fræðslunetið – símenntun á Suðurlandi – In english (fraedslunet.is)), a Consultancy for businesses and entrepreneurs (Ráðgjöf | SASS), the Southeast Iceland Nature Research Centre (English – Nattsa.is), a Cultural Centre (Menningarmiðstöð Hornafjarðar (hornafjordur.is)) and facilities for online learning.
The main purpose of the school is to serve the community that it is in, both young students, entrepreneurs, businesses and economic life. Some of the course offering at the school is partly based on the needs of the community, e.g., mountaineering instructor training and courses for sea- engineers. FAS is also in a progressive collaboration with an institution called Vöruhúsið (Voruhushofn.is / Hornafjörður – Fab Lab Ísland) with the goal to strengthen the creative part of entrepreneurship and innovation in the society.
We in FAS are excited to develop learning resources in the PEAKE project with our partners, the local institutions and last but not least, the young entrepreneurs that have recently started their businesses in varied fields, all aiming at the same goal, to make a living in the area they want to live in.
