Demografischer Wandel

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 present adult education centres as local service providers. At the same time, target groups and topics need to be reviewed and presented to the public with the right kind of packaging. Demographic change can serve as an occasion for presenting one’s own strengths again in a new way.

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 which are being assigned new labels with this demographic change in mind and strategies which have been developed especially to meet this situation. The analysis ranges from small and medium-scale enterprises all the way to company groups such as Deutsche Telekom AG, where the author surveyed special skills of older people in a research project. Further training at companies needs to be devoted more attention on the whole as a result of demographic change.

Dealing professionally with negative emotions

Tolerance of frustration and ambiguity as a key competence of providers of continuing education

Dealing with disruptions is a key challenge in educational activities. This article uses abusive, insulting or fault-finding statements by participants to analyse professional ways of dealing with negative emotions. Tolerance of frustration and ambiguity are developed theoretically, understood as an element of a broad “feelings-management” and propagated as a key skill of providers of continuing education. The article closes with some practical suggestions for individual analysis of this personality trait.

Effects of continuing education tests

Continuing education tests aim at improving transparency of the quality of programmes on offer and initiating processes to improve quality at providers of continuing education. But what has the impact of continuing education tests been to date? The authors present selected results of an evaluation study. From a demand perspective, continuing education has not been transparent since the introduction of educational testing in 2002, either. 54% of the population and 59% of providers of continuing education which were surveyed consider comparative continuing education tests by Stiftung Warentest to be important; a majority of providers of continuing education are sceptical. Around one in four tested providers state that they have changed the programmes they offer as a result of the tests while almost one in three have expanded their programmes on offer as a result of the tests. The use of continuing education tests by providers and other customers is on the rise, but market penetration could still be increased. In closing, the article proposes five fields of focus which could boost the effectiveness of continuing education tests.