Verband Österreichischer Volkshochschulen (VÖV) - Association of Austrian Adult Education Centres

Who we are?

The Adult Education Centres in Austria consist of a federal association, 9 regional associations and 270 adult education centres. The VÖV together with its Educational Work and Research Unit (Pädagogische Arbeits- und Forschungsstelle, PAF), regards itself as a co-ordination centre for activities relevant to educational policy and pedagogics in Austrian Adult Education Centres and also as a service centre for its member organisations, the regional associations. Austrian adult education centres regard themselves as educational institutions which are pledged to democracy, committed to the principles of human rights and independent of any political parties. For this reason they are opposed to any sort of behaviour which is anti-democratic, racist, anti-semitic, misogynous or which discriminates against any group of people, and they are committed to counteract such tendencies.

The Austrian Adult Education Centres view education as a learning process which continues throughout life and which comprehends the cognitive, affective and physical dimensions, in other words, the whole person. Its work is focused on the learners’ needs and requirements, but also tries to make people aware of needs and requirements they might forget about in every day life.

What we do?

Besides the coordination work the main activities of the VÖV include publishing and research activities, co-operative projects e.g. as part of the Conference for Adult Education in Austria (KEBÖ) or within an international framework.

The Association is also responsible for the conception, organization and personal direction of training seminars and teacher education programmes. Conferences provide impulses for innovative educational work and ensure the further training of employees. Working groups throughout Austria elaborate concepts and develop common perspectives on selected current themes and in specialist areas, e.g. an Austrian Language Portfolio.

Best practices

• Grundtvig-Learning Partnership CODIGO, 2012-2014, Spain, Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, UK and Belgium, further information available here
• Professional publications about theory and practice of language teaching and materials for teaching