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In the search for strategies to combat skills shortages, employees with simple tasks have often not been focused on. However, making up about 20?% of all employees, this group of workers represents an important qualification potential. It is the purpose of our paper to investigate the question whether expected or existing difficulties in filling vacancies for skilled personnel increase the training activities of firms towards employees in low-skilled jobs. Our analyses show that expected skills…
Caught between Two Stools. Adult Education for People with Intellectual Disabilities The report analyses connecting factors for the manifestation of an inclusive approach in adult education for people with mental disabilities. It presents existing organisational forms and qualification paths. The core challenge is seen in the development of an inclusive professionalism which combines the expertise and competences existing in both general adult education and help for the disabled. The develop…
The aim of the paper is to give an overview of key issues involved in recognising non-formal and informal learning, ranging from the legitimacy of the learning activities in terms of the outcomes to be recognised, through the cost of the necessary assessment, and essential elements such as quality assurance, the standards used, the potential benefits and the real obstacles. The findings summarised here are based on a report that describes and analyses practices in the 22 countries that particip…
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 propa…
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On the basic The article looks at which values (defined as ‘conceptions of what is desirable’) are important to managers in continuing education, especially in terms of their interactions with employees, and to what extent they succeed, according to their own perception, in actually doing what is desirable. A re-analysis of interviews with managers acting under different general conditions suggests that collaboration based on participation and solidarity is especially important to all three man…
International stimuli. More than 25 years of literacy and basic education A look back at the history of literacy discussions as a debate starting in the 1970s and heavily influenced by international organisations. The urgency of the subject is demonstrated at the start by international figures on the extent of illiteracy. The author sees today’s questions and issues as rooted in the 1980s and 1990s; in his overview of the German government's current funding focus he points out that there is…
Participants related and milieu related aspects of participation in adult education It is assumed that the participants quotas, participants interests and participants motivation do not only differ regarding the central sociodemografic features but also differ strongly with regard to the respective milieu affiliation. Theoretically the milieu studies add on to the traditional pilot studies of adult education (cp. Strzelewicz among others 1966) and the differentiating analyses of the modern r…
Viele Bildungsexperten sehen die wachsende Gefahr eines „knowledge gap“ zwischen wissensnahen und wissensfernen Gruppen unserer Gesellschaft, wenn keine unterstützenden Strukturen implementiert werden. Auch die Expansion von informeller Bildung, die geringere Zugangsbarrieren aufweist als formal-organisierte Bildung, führt nicht automatisch zu einer stärkeren Beteiligung bildungsferner Gruppen. Die vorliegende Studie ermittelt Weiterbildungsbarrieren und Möglichkeiten zu ihrer Überwindung. Eine…
