The rigid division between the three subsystems of continuing vocational training in Germany (continuing vocational training for employees, continuing vocational training for the unemployed, individual continuing vocational training) hinders the implementation of an integrated labour market and qualification policy. As a result an effective and efficient use of the financial means for training (combination of financing resources) is not possible.
Counselling: Changes for a Sustainable Development If counselling should survive as a generally accepted human service at the beginning of the 21st century, a fundamental shift in paradigms and the therewith connected development of sustainable offers for counselling becomes necessary. Permanent co-evolution of needs from clients, economy and society calls for specific skills and knowledge for analysis and coping with multiple subjective realities, ecological contexts, non-linear causalities…
It is widely acknowledged that adult education is a moral enterprise in many respects. There is a demand for empirical research on which groups of actors are dealing with professional ethical issues and which specific ethical problems arise in adult education practice. The authors analyze ethical standards and policies of adult education associations in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Based on the outcomes of this analysis, they present a proposal on how a discourse on ethical standards in ad…
Receptive or hostile to continuing education? Course tutors caught between the pressure to conform and resistance This article presents the results of a qualitative dissertation. The author has investigated the acceptance of adult education teacher training courses among part-time and freelance teachers based on the example of the initial adult education teacher training qualification offered by the North Rhine Westphalia VHS (adult education centre) regional association. For the issue of a…
The latest number of the Berichtssystem Weiterbildung (»Further Education Report System«) of the Federal Ministry for Education and Research marks a trend reversal: whereas in the last periods under review an increase in the attendance of further education courses was to be observed, currently attendance is regressive by five percent points – particularly in general further education. The author presumes that one reason for this is education’s focussing on the labour market perspective, an atti…
Strategies for the strengthening of networking work Selected results from the context of the programme of the Federal Ministry for Education and Research “Learning culture and competency development” A large number of publications on the subject matter of network are engaged with the conditions of the initiation as well as the management of networks. An issue that has so far been neglected in research however poses the question of the strengthening of networking work. The initiation of netw…
Striving for quality is at the core of pedagogical professionalism. Therefore the science of further education has to intervene in the quality discussion in two ways: Firstly, it must develop criteria by which systems of quality assurance can be compared and by which their appropriateness for the sector of further education can be evaluated. Secondly, it must inquire yet more persistently into the specifics of pedagogical quality and find out what further education science can contribute toward…
Changes in the managerial staff of (educational) organizations bring about times of transition with multiple challenges. How can members of the staff be prepared to assume leadership positions? How can new personnel be found and attracted to stay? How can the induction period and the effective transfer of knowledge be organized? To successfully meet all these challenges, a forward-looking strategy is needed, which can be used as groundwork for concrete measures regarding managerial changes. Thi…
The research memorandum for adult and continuing education (2000) focuses systematically on main research areas and contributes significantly to the systematization of the research landscape, the enhancement of possible collaborations and the provision of an overview of research achievements in the discipline for research sponsors as well as the public. Since 2007, adult educational research projects can be entered in a data base in accordance with the memorandum systematic. Acknowledging that …
Learning along biographical and career changes Based on a biographical sample from adult education centres (VHS), this article discusses the concept of research on learning environments. The factors for success will be evaluated together with reflections on how to prepare for an executive position in such institutions. This will allow for extracting conditions for learning in certain biographical settings. The challenge for learning is seen as a result of the individual’s changing reception…
