In consideration of the omnipresent commitment to the significance of lifelong learning, the article analyses the role of continuing education within public education funding. Over the past 20 years, public continuing education funding has been reduced by 41 %. The low participation rate in continuing education, particularly among the less qualified and atypically employed, encourage an increase in public investments. Funds should enhance staff counselling, qualification and professionalism as …
For various reasons adult participation in lifelong learning does not measure up to expectations tied to the agenda of lifelong learning. The article suggests that adults relate learning activities to their conceptions of life stages. Therefore, participation in institutionalized continuing education must rather be linked to life-stage-dependant decisions based on sociocultural patterns than to the acceptance of lifelong learning in general. Specifically in the stage of professional life, these…
The National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) reflects upon adult learning from the perspective of a life profile. The article describes the system and methodological approach of the NEPS with a special focus on the group of adults. The education and employment history as well as the consequent competence development of the adult working age population is analyzed. Overall, 60,000 people are surveyed in the NEPS including more than 11,000 adults. First data is already available to the expert publ…
Bildung ist wertvoll! Wer wollte dies ernsthaft bestreiten? Dennoch – und vielleicht gerade weil man die Benefits von Bildung für Individuum und Gesellschaft einfach als selbstverständlich gegeben ansieht, kann sich die Forschung in Deutschland bislang auf wenig empirische Evidenz berufen: Welche monetären und nicht-monetären Erträge kann die Weiterbildung eigentlich nachweislich erzielen? Worin bzw. woraus bestehen die sog. »wider benefits of lifelong learning«? Last but not least: Sind die E…
The author presents the idea of Web 2.0 providing new opportunities for the political participation of citizens. First, he evaluates possible target groups. Corresponding empirical observations reveal a distinction between those who have arrived in the world of digital content and those who have not. Political education focuses on so called »digital outsiders« to avoid long-term representation deficits caused by an increasingly digitalized democracy. In conclusion, necessary competences of poli…
Manche politischen Konzepte brauchen Jahre, bis sie umgesetzt werden, andere werden äußerst schnell zum Umsetzungsszenario. Wie laufen diese unterschiedlichen Prozesse ab, welche Rolle spielt die Wissenschaft? Diesen Fragen geht der Autor anhand zweier Fallbeispiele nach.
The article provides an insight into supranational and international continuing education monitoring. The author identifies three particularly relevant tools for adult learning: the Adult Education Survey conducted by the EU, the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) and the European Lifelong Learning Index. The findings of the author’s dissertation substantiate the effects of monitoring and educational reporting in available data, evaluation practice and…
The German Atlas of Continuing Education documents empirical educational research results which identify geographical location, in addition to socio-economic status, as an important dimension of inequality in educational opportunities for adults. Generally, the German Atlas of Continuing Education describes the provision of continuing education and participation in continuing education at the levels of federal states as well as districts and independent cities over time. In addition, the Atla…
Trotz vielfältiger Anstrengungen der letzten Jahre, geflüchtete Menschen mit Sprach- und Integrationskursen zu versorgen, bleibt die Teilnahme von Menschen mit Migrationshintergrund an Weiterbildung insgesamt unterdurchschnittlich. Es bedarf, so die Autorin, nicht nur punktueller Anstrengungen, sondern einer konsequenten interkulturellen Öffnung der Einrichtungen und Institutionen, um dies zu ändern.
GER war eine freiwillige Organisation, die von 1942 bis 1958 in Großbritannien einen Beitrag zum Zusammenhalt deutscher Emigranten aus den Sozial- und Bildungsberufen leistete. Der Fokus lag dabei auf der Förderung der Erwachsenenbildung in der Nachkriegszeit.
