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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…
Voluntary work 2.0? Media-related conditions for voluntary work in the Internet A participation culture has developed in the Internet which is broadly discussed under the rubric of “Web 2.0” and which is explored in this article to determine the principles of voluntary work operating here. To this end the author first forwards a definition of voluntary work in “offline” reality before examining the communications-related conditions prevailing in the Internet upon which a conception of volun…
New responsibility for older people. “Senior citizen trainers“ in the EFI Programme: training concept and fields of activity This article presents a continuing education strategy with which older people are prepared for voluntary work as senior citizen trainers. The six-week course was developed in the model programme “experiential knowledge for initiatives” (briefly: EFI), which was funded by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth over a five-year period,…
The notion of lifelong learning is reshaping the structural principle according to which learning is organised in the time structures of society. Long periods of time spent in schools are becoming more flexible, with shorter sections of ordered learning times being distributed throughout people’s lives and more flexible transitions taking place between work and learning. The three-phase scheme for working life – training, work and retirement – is becoming more flexible. The LLL concept can be s…
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…
Traumatisation and national emergency semantics. Continuities in educational policy from Sputnik to the PISA shock The successful launch of the Soviet satellite “Sputnik” in the autumn of 1957 had a lasting impact on u.S. educational policy: expenditures on education and science skyrocketed in order to keep up in the technol-ogy race with the Soviet union. this article explores the conditions in which the launch of a satellite led to a profound shock while at the same time analysing the sema…
Foundation of a family as a predetermined breaking point? On the interaction of parenthood and participation in adult education and continuing education Within the context of an empirical longitudinal research project, the processes and turning points of the continuing education practise are documented and discussed in a gender-typical context of life. The survey proves the gender-typical change of the (continuing) education behaviour of men and women when they become fathers and mothers: The …
Quo vadis graduate? First assessment of the BA/MA study location Bochum The contribution looks through experiences in relation to graduates of B.A. and M.A. courses of study in educational science in Bochum. Concerning the bachelor: The graduate quota with 60 per cent is much higher than previous quotas – like in the master course of study. While approximately half of the graduates continue their study in Bochum, others enter the employment market directly. They find employment in the wider s…
Challenges of the Bologna process. New graduations (B.A./M.A.) and the traditional university The contribution enquires for the relation between new B.A./M.A. graduations and the system of traditional universities, which in Germany is closely connected with the name Wilhelm von Humboldt. Because the university has always been having an education function, today’s reform could by all means be legitimised by the classic idea of university. After a brief outline of the Bologna process and under c…
