Research
We explore how adult education can be made inclusive, digital and effective.
Services
Digital tools, specialist portals and data – for teachers, researchers, students and interested parties.
Institute
We offer research, transfer and infrastructure for lifelong learning.
The following article focuses the mostly neglected relation between identity and learning by reconstructing foreign learning efforts by adults. In spite of educational policy's proclamation of (continuous) lifelong learning real learning processes are characterized by various discontinuities. Adults deal with these discontinuities by perceiving, describing and structuring them dependent on their self-images as learners. Interpretations of interviews with adult language learners supply evidence …
Can continuing university education be "internationalised"? Factors conditioning success and constraints on the export of continuing education programmes from German, Austrian and Swiss schools of higher learning In the context of a general expansion of the university sector through an ongoing differentiation and new regulatory models, the international orientation has become a key differentiating factor and quality aspect. This article shows that possibilities for greater internationalisati…
Continuing education at schools of higher learning – data on developments in the context of the Bologna process Wide-ranging, different and at the same time diverging factors are having an impact on schools of higher learning, causing uncertainty among staff as well as institutional insecurity. This also goes for scholarly continuing education. In general it would appear that there is a trend towards commercialisation of universities linked with a growing autonomy of sub-units, faculties and…
Didactic transition between education and working life This article examines the orientation of vocational training towards “learning areas” in the context of the larger thematic topic of “occupation and education”. The pivotal question around which the whole topic revolves is whether and in what ways the concept of “learning areas” can contribute to a constructive change in the dialectic between education and occupation. It is with this in mind that the relationship between education and p…
Organisation and growth of the continuing training market is increasingly taking place within the private economic sector. There also is increasing reporting coverage of continuing training in accordance with the significance of lifelong learning for societal participation and the retention of occupational competences. In order to enable an accurate picture of the situation and developments of providers of general and vocational education and training to be given, it would be useful to have a k…
Times for (re)interpretation Transitions and their adaptation from the perspective of biographical research The contribution asks for the meaning of transitions in the educational system from a perspective of pedagogical biography research. Transitions effectuate initially mainly insecurities, clearing of one’s own basis, development of new perspectives, accepting or changing of the new situation, release of energy and activities for mastery of changes. In the example of an interview passage …
Therapeutical influence in company operational lead Criticism of a jargon in the manager training - presented by means of a selective analysis of the professional journal “Manager Seminars” The contribution takes a look at the group “managers" in the framework of the operational lead because their future management action does not stay without influence on the company “as a whole”. Permanent changes also determine an alteration of the (leading) role, so that additional requirements move int…
This article discusses the consequences of increasing access of non-traditional students to higher education (HE) in Sweden for society, individuals, and HE. The findings are based on a recently finished European Research Project called Access and Retention: Experiences of Non-traditional Students in Higher Education (RANLHE) with seven countries involved. First, an introduction about opening access to HE is presented, followed by a review of Swedish HE policy. Next is a presentation of the RAN…
The Plan to market transition brought with it the restructuring of the labour market, but also unemployment, new job profiles, and ongoing reform of the education system. Within the catch-up process of joining the EU and harmonizing the legislative framework and developments with the aquis communautaire, the effort to set up and implement effective policies was relatively coherent. But the results achieved so far show that much more efforts are needed, as the participation rate of adults in edu…
Competence profile of the “specialist in violence” The changing requirements and roles of soldiers 50 years after the first military draft, this article explores the requirements and roles of German Army soldiers over the period 1957 to 2007. The changing competencies and skills required of soldiers must be understood in connection with the profound changes which the German Army has undergone in its transformation from a defence-oriented force to an army actively involved in military missions…