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From the principle of the regulated occupation to the supremacy of certification: fields of conflict en route to the German qualifications framework (DQR) This article addresses the central difficulties observed in the search for consensus during the current development of a national German qualifications framework (Deutscher Qualifikationsrahmen, DQR). As well as the difficulty in blending in the German national “dual system” of vocational training with the EQF, the main difficulties identi…
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…
Justice and the right to continuing education Education opportunities are unfairly distributed. In the area, too, of continuing education there are disadvantaged groups of persons who especially have already suffered discrimination during their initial vocational education and training. The demand for equal opportunities which dates back to Aristotle and John Rawls implies that everyone who suffers as a result of insufficient or unsatisfactory results in their initial training should have a…
The paper tackles the issue of procedures for the validation of competences, which are used in the tertiary education sector in order to evaluate an individual’s study ability on the basis of his/her vocational qualifications. This contested terrain will be explored by means of the University of Hamburg’s validation procedure (the so-called Eingangsprüfungsverfahren, §38 HmbHG). The focus of interest will be put on a qualitative reconstruction of individual decision-making processes during thes…
In adult education, fields of activity have lost their strict boundaries: administrative employees also perform pedagogical work – such as counselling, for instance – and full-time pedagogical employees also have to handle administrative work – e.g. in project management. Both qualitatively and quantitatively, administrative employees play an important role in the pedagogical functioning of institutions of adult education, although this factor is often neglected in both research and measures of…
In the past, continuing higher education at university level has been a marginal phenomenon in Germany, both within universities and the context of adult education on the whole. Internationally though, adult education has gained significant importance / relevance in recent years. While implementing the objectives of the bologna-process, German universities are undergoing a far-reaching transition. In addition, the rules of market economy will apply for universities increasingly. This very devel…
The support of food and move literacy in learning groups mainly aims for a benefit in terms of a health-promoting and sustainable lifestyle. The general education system has developed differentiated education plans containing basic contents and competences on these topics. In adult education comprehensive health education addresses aspects of food- as well as move literacy. In the context of literacy and basic education, however, there are only a few learning opportunities that focus on nutriti…
With this article, the author (of the Institute of International Cooperation, an institution within the German Adult Education Association, IIZ/DVV) opens up a readers’ discussion in this publication on the subject of education and the EU extension. In his article, an overview of the points of discussion is given. After the breakdown of the socialist societies in the middle and Eastern European countries, educational facilities suffered a severe loss of authority. This has only partly been ba…
The "Blue Series" is the DIE's most traditional series of books. It is aimed at researchers and students of adult education as well as academically interested practitioners. Scientific papers on a theoretical and empirical base provide access to adult education research and enhance the transfer of knowledge between practice and research. Over the past 30 years, it contributed significantly to the discipline of adult education.
The article focuses the question whether workforce literacy strategies in research and policies may tend to exclude relevant fields of literacy, which have emancipatory chances for participants, but which regularly fail in including low qualified or literate adults, namely the area of basic civic education. The relevance of basic civic education will be discussed using contemporary theories, which point at a crisis of democracy and explain this by the spread of income and capital and its legiti…
