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Over the past 15 years, a variety of approaches have been developed in (adult) education contexts to validate formal, non-formal and informal competences and thus harness them for lifelong learning purposes. Despite the development, testing and evaluation of appropriate procedures as well as process-accompanying research and procedural clarification processes, a nationwide implementation can not be observed. It can be deduced from these findings that the low degree of implementation of correspo…
The article focuses on reflexive competencies, their importance in the context of adult educational professionalization and professionalism, and their embedding in existing procedures for the validation of competencies. Reflexive competencies are a key component of adult educational professionalism. Their recognition and certification, however, is particularly challenging because it cannot be based on detailed descriptions of these competencies. Therefore, it will be examined how the recognitio…
Adult education centers (“Volkshochschulen”) realize their educational mission nationwide, in a wide range of educational topics and for all citizens. In order to foster equal participation opportunities for all population groups, they face the challenge of adapting their work to social developments. Organizational approaches such as diversity management and intercultural opening provide a framework that considers different levels of continuing education work and discusses their contribution to…
When crediting non-university previous achievements in higher education courses, the term “professional competence” is often used. However, the results of the 2014 “AnHoSt study” and the 2016 “Anrechnungsmonitor” show that the crediting procedures at German HEIs have so far mainly related to formal qualifications, but not to competences acquired in non-formal or informal learning contexts. Even individual crediting procedures are generally based on the formal curricula of apprenticeship and fur…
In Switzerland, experienced teachers can validate their competencies which they have achieved in the field of adult education. By submitting a self-assessment which is oriented along a competency profile, to the Swiss Association for Continuing Education (SVEB), the teachers demonstrate in a comprehensible way that they possess the necessary competences to teach in adult education. Experts examine the submitted self-assessments and use the competency profile as a reference standard. The experts…
The article systematizes perspectives for the development of supply structures for people with a migrant background, especially for refugees. For this purpose, the article defines an integration concept that focuses various educationally relevant levels and dimensions, which are entangled with a perspective of the intercultural and transcultural adult and further education. Based on the results from various program analyzes studies and ongoing research projects, it furthermore reflects, how the…
Volunteering in the field of migration/refuge opens up a potential learning space for the acquisition of numerous competencies. The paper is based on an empirical pre-study from Austria and focusses on an analysis of political learning processes amongst volunteers and their implications for the development of active citizenship and the connected challenges for adult education. Diverse factors influencing the engagement of volunteers, such as political and media discourse about refugees, are con…
