Immigration countries such as Germany require legal, social and educational measures to organize migration. Both, the immigrant as well as the host population need to be the concern of educational and training activities. Linguistic, intercultural and political educational programmes are particularly relevant. The REPORT on “Continuing Education and Migration” focuses on empirical research findings and implemented concepts: What are the key issues in continuing education to be tackled within th…
Working at companies in old age – problem or opportunity? Company strategies for dealing with demographic change Demographic change usually confronts companies with a double challenge. Enterprises have to work with ageing staffs, while a veritable “war for talent” is underway to attract young skilled staff. This article explores the different strategies German enterprises are adopting to meet this challenge. At the same time, it distinguishes between tried-and-proven staff strategies whic…
Local responses to local challenges Marketing strategies of adult education centres during times of demographic change As a result of their course offerings and their target groups, adult education centres offer excellent prerequisites for structuring and shaping demographic change at the local level. These centres thus fulfil a necessary social function while at the same time strengthening their own position. Target-group oriented marketing by the same token plays a major role in order to …
The author discusses the influence of the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) on the literacy education field in Canada. Methodology is holistic and centred around critical policy analysis. Finds Canada invested heavily in the surveys and has not yet changed policy or practice in response to the findings. Two reasons for lack of influence are suggested: the difficulty of comparing literacy survey results over time, and the lack of federal investment in the org…
The German Society for Promotion of Research at Old Age (Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Forschung im Alter – DGFFA) wants to give an impulse for the intensification of the discussion on those aspects of the demographic change, to which the universities/colleges would need to devote themselves to in due time, if they strive to consolidate their future viability in a society of lifelong learning. The presented suggestions in this contribution are components of a position paper that a wor…
During the last two decades, widening adult participation in higher education has become a central issue in international and especially European lifelong learning policy debates. At European level this is reflected in the Europe 2020 strategy set out by the European Commission. One headline target is to boost the share of the population aged 30–34 that has completed tertiary or equivalent education to 40 per cent by 2020. In the face of general trends such as the intensive use of ICT, the evol…
European countries, North America and Japan are strongly affected by demographic change and ageing populations. In these countries a discourse emerged about using the potentials of older people and the role of lifelong learning in this process. This text focuses on international results of further educational participation of older people and outlines concepts of learning in later life in Germany.
The demographic change and the growing demand of skilled workers in Germany puts workers with migration background in the focus of interest in politics, economy, research and, increasingly, of adult education. The following article analyses empirically the relationship between the socio-cultural determinants, which are theoretically embedded in Esser’s model of social integration, and the participation in further vocational education of working adults with a migration background in Germany on t…