Continuing Education and Training and the EU Framework on State Aid
Implications for the Public Higher Education Sector in Brandenburg
Ageing populations and rising skill demands have heightened expectations that higher education systems will widen their offer of continuing education and training (CET) for adults aiming to renew or augment their skills at an advanced level. CET is becoming increasingly important for maintaining a highly skilled workforce also in Germany, and particularly in the state of Brandenburg. However, Brandenburg’s public higher education institutions have so far been only marginal providers. To expand their offer of CET, they would require more legal certainty about the use of public funding in light of European Union (EU) state aid policy. EU state aid policy ensures public subsidies (state aid) are not used by state agencies to crowd out markets (economic activity). There are no clear EU, federal or state-level directions about whether CET is a non-economic activity and thus exempt from EU state aid rules. This report analyses the reasons for this legal uncertainty and provides recommendations to the state government and public higher education institutions in Brandenburg about how to clarify the status of continuing education and training as a state-aided activity. It also proposes pointers for interpretation and future reform of the EU framework on state aid, and provides impulses for policy action in other German states and at the federal level.
Also available in: German
CET in practice at HEIs in Brandenburg
This chapter looks at the actual practices of Brandenburg’s HEIs in their implementation of CET programmes. It draws from information provided by seven Brandenburg HEIs about the types of CET programmes they offer – including academic programmes, certificate courses, vocational development courses and language courses, among others. The HEIs also reported on how they organise, implement and manage CET programmes. These approaches are then assessed against the legal principles established in Chapters 2 and 3. This chapter also offers comparative analysis of the CET practices of Brandenburg’s HEIs with those of HEIs in Bavaria, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia.
Also available in: German
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