Landesverband der Volkshochschulen Schleswig-Holsteins e.V. - Association of Adult Education Centres in Schleswig-Holstein

Who we are:

The Landesverband der Volkshochschulen Schleswig-Holsteins is the association of the adult education centres (Volkshochschulen, vhs) in Schleswig-Holstein. We are advocating the interests of our 155 members providing support services to help them with supplying quality-assured adult education in Schleswig-Holstein. There are currently 140 adult education centres, six district level educational institutions and nine residential training centres.

Founded in 1948, we have since been striving to provide education for everyone, regardless of gender, age, socioeconomic status and religious beliefs. We are committed to promoting democracy, basic education as well as ensuring the integration of migrants of any background.

What we do:

We are committed to promoting the vhs programme areas: health, culture, society, languages, basic education, profession/occupation. In addition, we are engaged in the following activities:

• Service point “Digitalisation”, which provides support for members in order to promote digitalisation in adult education centres throughout Schleswig-Holstein
• Central examination office (TELC, Goethe, naturalisation tests)
• Examiner training for TELC and Goethe certificates
• Advanced training for course instructors throughout Schleswig-Holstein
• Projects: German language training courses for refugees throughout Schleswig-Holstein: WWK – Wegweiserkurse, EOK.SH and STAFF.SH; Projects in Basic Education: Alpha-Regionalstellen, KonsumAlpha
• Erasmus+ projects Europ@vhs (2015-2017), Europ@vhs#digital (2017-2019), InDivhs (2019-2021)

Best practices

• Blog Europ@vhs#digital: online blog with travel reports and learning logs from participants in our Erasmus+ project: https://www.europavhs.de/
• “Sprachförderkette” in Schleswig-Holstein: the ideal chain of language learning for refugees as provided by federally and nationally funded projects, WWK – Wegweiserkurse, EOK.SH and STAFF.SH: https://vhs-sh.de/fileadmin/docs/Downloads/Programmbereiche/Spezial/Sprachfoerderkette.pdf
• Engagiert-in-sh: project supporting voluntary work, civil and voluntary commitment in Schleswig-Holstein, funded by the Ministry for Social Affairs: www.engagiert-in-sh.de
• “Digitale Knotenpunkte”: there are three centres in rural areas in Schleswig-Holstein that serve as „digital nodes”, providing meeting places where knowledge about new technologies is taught and where those technologies can be tried first hand: https://lokal.digital-sh.de/startseite/meldorf/