Faculty of Educational Sciences

Institute of Vocational and Further Education

The Institute of Vocational and Further Education focuses its attention on lifelong learning and on adult education within the context of work and employment, digital media and informal learning. The scope with which the institute addresses topics relating to adult education and lifelong learning is unique in Germany. The chairs of the Institute of Vocational and Further Education tackle current issues relating to general, vocational company-based political and media education, which they process in close cooperation with major stakeholders operating within the respective fields, such as the German Institute for Adult Education (DIE), the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), the German Association of Adult Education Centres (DVV), and the German Institute for International Pedagogical Research (DIPF).

Thematic areas of present and future relevance for the Institute of Vocational and Further Education include (further) training research within the context of the digitalisation of the worlds we live, work and learn in (“Industry 4.0”), fairness of participation in its capacity as a leading policy driver for the development of the educational system and for the shaping of educational processes, structural, methodological and didactic challenges to lifelong learning and integration, and internationalisation within the context of the modernisation of socialisation, educational and training processes.

In 2015, the Institute of Vocational and Further Education organised a national conference on vocational education and training. This produced an edited volume entitled “Lifelong Learning during Socio-structural Change”, which was published in 2016 by Springer VS (edited by Münk & Walter). This work provides an impression of the wide range of topics investigated at the Institute of Vocational and Further Education and with cooperation partners.