Adult education and lifelong learning

In short: Adult education covers all educational offers after the initial training phase, from professional development to personal-interest courses. Lifelong learning is considered increasingly important given changing job profiles.

In more detail: Adult education centres, distance courses and online platforms make adult education widely accessible today.

In detail

• Professional development: Adaptation to new requirements or advancement training.
• Personal development: Languages, art, health or digital skills outside of work.
• Adult education centre (VHS): Offers affordable courses on a wide range of topics in almost every town (vhs-kurse-und-weiterbildung-finden).
• Funding: Educational leave, education vouchers or tax deductibility can reduce costs (weiterbildung-steuerlich-absetzen).
• Digital offers: Online courses enable flexible learning regardless of place and time.
• Motivation: Adults often learn in a more targeted way than in younger years, since the benefit is more clearly recognisable.
• Social benefit: Lifelong learning promotes adaptability in a changing labour market.