Zu weit weg? Lokale Angebotsstruktur als Zugangsbedingung für Weiterbildung

Too Far Away? Local course offerings as a prerequisite for access to continuing education
Does a larger range of continuing education courses offered locally go hand in hand with greater participation of the population in continuing education? Is it possible to discern a relationship between the educational status of potential participants in continuing education and the distance from their place of residence and thus accessible and affordable continuing education offerings? In this article, the authors consider location-related features of course offerings based on a public survey from the project “BildungsLandschaft Oberfranken (BiLO)” in combination with official data of adult education centre statistics and research on the precise locations of the adult education centres. The significance of local course offerings as a prerequisite for access to continuing education is verified by calculating the individual distances to potential courses or courses that were actually attended using georeferencing. One of the article’s conclusions: easy access to continuing education offerings is an important criterion for whether the respondent decides to participate in a continuing education programme. Geographic access is particularly important to respondents with a lower level of education; at the same time, fewer courses are offered near their place of residence—thereby necessitating action. The article includes a fact box on Austrian studies in this subject area. (Ed.)