The higher the language level in German, the more often people of active working age (25-64 years) participate in educational activities. This is the result of Statistics Austria’s Adult Education Survey 2022/23. This applies to both the formal education sector (school and university) and – even more so – to professional or private further training.
According to the survey conducted from October 2022 to March 2023, 58.6 percent of people with German as their mother tongue participated in further training such as courses, seminars, workshops, lectures, on-the-job training or private lessons in the past twelve years. months before the survey. Closely followed with a participation rate of 52.9 percent are people with language level C (competent use of the language, i.e. fluent). For people who speak German as an additional language at level B (independent use of the language, especially when it comes to everyday things), this was 34.7 percent.
Participation in education increases at very low language levels
Somewhat surprising: at the lower language level A (elementary or very limited language skills), participation rises again to 41.2 percent. According to the research, this is because these people are significantly more likely to attend educational activities related to the development of language skills and these courses are disproportionately funded in whole or in part by the AMS. For people who do not speak German at all, the further training rate is 36.8 percent.
However, when it comes to so-called “non-institutionalized learning” in leisure time (e.g. learning from relatives or friends, reading books/magazines, learning using a TV/computer/mobile phone), there is no systematic connection with language level. Almost all groups have a participation of approximately three quarters. Only people with language level B had a slightly lower participation rate (63.9 percent).
In the survey, 81 percent of 25- to 64-year-olds said they spoke German as their first language. Another 3.6 percent listed 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 mother tongue consists of people with level C (fluent, 6.4 percent), level B (independent, 4.8 percent), level A (elementary, 3.9 percent) or people together who do not speak German at all (3.7 percent).
Source: Krone
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