New statistics show:

Language level essential for adult education

(Bild: APA/drazen zigic)

The higher the language level in German, the more frequently people of prime working age (25-64 years) take part in educational activities. This is the result of the Adult Education Survey 2022/23 by Statistics Austria. This applies both to the formal education sector (schools and universities) and - even more so - to vocational or private continuing education.

According to the survey conducted from October 2022 to March 2023, 58.6 percent of people with German as their first language had taken part in further education such as courses, seminars, workshops, lectures, workplace training or private lessons in the twelve months prior to the survey. Only just behind them, with a participation rate of 52.9 percent, are people with language level C (competent language use, i.e. fluent). For people who speak German as an additional language at level B (independent use of the language, especially in everyday situations), the figure was 34.7%.

Participation in education increases at very low language levels 
Somewhat surprisingly, at the lower language level A (elementary or extremely limited language skills), participation rises again to 41.2 percent. According to the survey, this is due to the fact that these people are much more likely to attend educational activities that focus on developing language skills and that these courses are disproportionately often partially or fully funded by the AMS. Among people who do not speak any German at all, the continuing education rate is 36.8 percent.

When it comes to so-called "non-institutionalized learning" in leisure time (e.g. learning from family members or friends, reading books/journals, learning with the help of TV/computer/mobile phone), however, there is no systematic correlation with the language level. Almost all groups achieve a participation rate of around three quarters. Only people with language level B have a slightly lower participation rate (63.9 percent).

In the survey, 81% of 25 to 64-year-olds stated that German was their first language. A further 3.6 percent named Turkish as their first language, followed by Serbian (2.7 percent), Romanian (1.7 percent), Croatian and Bosnian (1.4 percent each), Hungarian (1.2 percent) and Arabic (1.0 percent).

The 19 percent who do not have German as their first language are made up of people with level C (fluent, 6.4 percent), level B (independent, 4.8 percent), level A (elementary, 3.9 percent) and those who do not speak German at all (3.7 percent).