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Despite a relatively similar education system, the way how people can get a qualification for adult and continuing education is different in Germany and Switzerland. Germany has established an academic track within educational sciences with the focus on planning and management. Switzerland follows a vocational track with a basic qualification for teaching adults that could be extended by qualifications within the vocational system for positions in planning and management. This paper analyses th…
How can the performances of continuing education become more influential in the German Qualification Framework (DQR)? The author presents concrete recommendations derived from a cross-provider work group: presentation of key competences across all levels; classification of qualifications acquired in continuing education to individual levels (example of level 6). With regard to the inclusion of non-formal and informal competences in continuing education, the author refers to the potential of EU …
The article deals with cooperation under the perspective of governance from an organisational view. According to the variety forms of cooperation in the field of adult education, cooperation can be seen as a medium that adult educational organisations can use for their reproduction and coordination in different institutional environment. Based on empirical findings from a case study, it can be shown that organisations initiate cooperation for collecting resources and legitimation. So, organisat…
The relation between sustainability and widening access to adult learners in higher education is both well comprehensible and highly vague. Accordingly, and following the arguments of Seghezzo (2009) and Foster (2001), the paper aims to complement academic discourse on widening access of higher education by showing the benefit of using the concept of sustainability not merely as an operational measurement index or a learning topic content-wise. Rather, a different understanding of sustainabilit…
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…
Departing from the variety of understandings of “region” both in general and in Adult Education, the author aims at a new definition of the term against the backdrop of current discussions on space. Based on a geographic approach, the author analyzes recent literature in the field of Adult Education. He identifies a shift in both politics and research. He, suggests, with Schöning, to evaluate the concept from a variety of perspectives – from the point of view of the subject, of the organiz…
Heutzutage ist es einfach, zu vielen Themen kostenlose Bildungsmaterialien zu erhalten. Doch wie kann die Qualität der Materialien eingeschätzt werden, welche Fallstricke gilt es bei der Verwendung zu beachten? Am Beispiel von Bildungsmaterialien zum Klimawandel zeigt die Autorin, dass es Unterstützung für die Einschätzung gibt und dass es hilfreich ist, auf die Lizenzierung zu achten.
Between prestigious office and everyday support. Voluntary commitment in continuing education When people engage in voluntary work in the field of continuing education on behalf of an institution, this is often because organisations believe they can obtain social capital in this manner. These persons then operate as organisers or in development associations. The focus of the author, however, is on those people who voluntarily provide support but often remain invisible – referred to in the li…
