The original objective of learning for learning's sake increasingly gave way to the task of responding to the educational needs arising from the demands of the state, society and industry. Since 1970, a more vocational slant, an emphasis on formal qualifications, systematisation and a new understanding of continuing education have been gaining importance.

With regard to the further development of the sector of continuing education within the scope of life-accompanying learning, the aim is to provide a foundation for the individual to

• develop the willingness for life-accompanying learning
• acquire the competences necessary for lifelong learning
• use institutionalised as well as new possibilities for learning in his or her life and work

Guiding ideas are

• reinforcement of self-responsibility and self-guidance
• redress of unequal opportunities
• cooperation between providers of education and users
• reinforcement of the relations between all sectors of education

The use of the potential of digitalisation is also becoming increasingly important in continuing education. In December 2017, a chapter on continuing education was added to the Standing Conference’s strategy Education in the Digital World in order to emphasise the role of continuing education institutions as an integral part of lifelong learning. Against this background, digitally supported learning should enable location-independent, time-flexible offers that have a high degree of individualisation.

In September 2021, the Standing Conference adopted a “Position Paper on the Digital Continuing Education Initiative” (‘Positionspapier zur Initiative Digitale Weiterbildung‘). The Digital Continuing Education Initiative focuses on the Adult Education Centres (Volkshochschulen) and other non-profit institutions and providers that are recognised or funded under the adult and continuing education laws of the Länder and are active in general adult education. The initiative thus covers an area that is still poorly represented in previous nationwide digitisation programmes. The position paper formulates four relevant fields of action for the further digitisation of general continuing education:

• Digital infrastructure and equipment
• Education for digital competence development
• Further education and qualification
• Exchange and networking

In June 2019, the Federal Government, the Länder, the social partners, the chambers of industry and commerce and the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit - BA) adopted the National Skills Strategy (Nationale Weiterbildungsstrategie - NWS). The strategy, which focuses on continuing vocational training, is intended to make a significant contribution to enabling individuals, companies and businesses, as well as society as a whole, to successfully cope with structural change and new challenges (e.g. automation, digitisation). The aim is to make further training courses and funding opportunities more transparent and more easily accessible for all in order to provide targeted support for groups of people with previously below-average participation in further training or for small and medium-sized enterprises without large personnel departments.

In September 2022, the partners of the National Skills Strategy decided to continue and further develop the strategy. Tried and tested instruments and concepts are to be widely applied, and new ideas discussed with representatives from practice and academia. In addition, concrete measures and activities for the further development of the continuing education system and for strengthening the culture of continuing education are to be agreed. 

The second implementation report on the NWS was published in March 2025.

As part of the EU 2030 Strategy, Germany has set itself the target of increasing participation in continuing education by 11 percentage points to 65 per cent by 2030. By implementing the NWS, the partners are helping to achieve this goal. In the follow-up paper “Continuing Education 2030: Opening up opportunities, strengthening skills, securing the future!” (2025), the NWS partners jointly focus on the following objectives: To equip people without vocational qualifications or suitable skills for the labour market, to support companies and employees in continuing education during structural change, and to harness the opportunities offered by digitalisation and artificial intelligence for continuing education.

These objectives are to be underpinned by measures and initiatives from all NWS partners. In doing so, the following four cross-cutting themes will continue to serve as a guide for their joint work:

• Facilitate access to counselling, promotion and further training offers, taking into ac-count the financial and temporal framework conditions;
• Intensify cooperation in regions and sectors;
• Further develop concepts for competences of the future, qualification planning in the company as well as company and collective agreement approaches to strengthen continuing education;
• Strengthen digital CET with more transparency and innovative learning offers.