About Framhaldsskólinn í Austur-Skaftafellssýslu (FAS):
FAS is an upper-secondary school with about 240 students. The school is located on the south-east coast of Iceland. The school is in the fishing village Höfn in Hornafjörður that has a population close to 1800. Höfn is about 450 km away from the capital, Reykjavík. The village is geographically rather isolated, 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 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 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 that also houses one of The University of Iceland’s Research Centres, (The Hornafjordur Regional Research Centre (HRRC)), a Consultancy for Entrepreneurs, the Southeast Iceland Nature Research Centre, a Cultural Centre 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. Part 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 with the goal to strengthen the creative part of entrepreneurship and innovation in the society.
