Use leave of absence for education

The number of employees in the German Federal State of Rhineland-Palatinate, who use the legally guaranteed leave of absence, has been growing steadily over the course of the past few years.

In the years 2011 and 2012, a total of 15,755 employees made use of their right to take up to ten working days leave of absence within two years for occupational or socio-political continuing education. Compared to the previous two-year period, this signified an increase by almost 36 per cent. In 2009/2010, the number of people taking leave of absence was 11,590. In 2007/2008, 10,669 legally substantiated leaves of absence were registered across the federal state.

Federal State Minister for Education and Continuing Education Doris Ahnen highlighted, "The continuous increase in the utilisation of leave of absence for education is a positive sign. Since in addition a significant part of continuing education measures takes place without recourse to the leave of absence legislation, it becomes clear that an increasing number of people actively work on their professional and socio-political continuing education. Equally gratifying in my view is also the fact that, according to the findings in the latest report, the instrument of leave of absence for education obviously supports the decision in favour of an extra-occupational university course. Thus, those people taking it upon themselves to complete a degree course in addition to their regular work profit from this legal entitlement. All in all, the educational leave of absence legislation makes a contribution that ought not be underestimated towards ensuring the skilled labour demand of our businesses in Rhineland-Palatinate."

The significant increase is without doubt due to occupational continuing education. The ratio between occupational and socio-political continuing education now is at 83 per cent to 14 per cent in terms of all leaves of absence. Three per cent of participations are accounted for by events combining occupational and socio-political content. By now, the large number of employees who study alongside their regular work is quite remarkable.

In 2011 and 2012, 2,473 people took educational leave of absence for this purpose. This is also the area where the greatest increase regarding service provision offers was registered. The Rhineland-Palatinate universities alone applied for 683 events to be recognised in line with the educational leave of absence law – this is an increase by 86 per cent compared to the 2009/2010 period.

Still, the option of taking leave of absence for education is used far more often by men than by women with the ration being 7:3. The percentage of people taking leave of absence who are under 30 years of age has further increased and now accounts for more than 41 per cent of the total number of educational leaves of absence. The older employees are, the less frequently they take advantage of leave of absence for educational purposes. Only 1.2 per cent of people taking leave of absence are older than 60.

As regards the size of businesses, from which the employees taking leave of absence derive, the large enterprises with more than 500 employees continue to dominate with 43.6 per cent. However, a good quarter of participants work in businesses with less than 50 employees.

Compared to the other German federal states, this proportion is relatively high. The reason for this is a circumstance specific to the Federal State of Rhineland-Palatinate: businesses with less than 50 employees can apply to the federal state for a lump sum reimbursement of part of the remuneration for employees on leave of absence. In 2011 and 2012, small enterprises thus received a total reimbursement sum of nearly 312,000 Euro. The leaves of absence supported by this measure were almost completely used for the purpose of occupational continuing education.