Adult education
Further education providers, adult education centres, chambers of commerce. Designing courses, managing lecturers, understanding funding logic. Project-driven work, often anchored in the evening.
Education studies alongside your job
You already work with people and want the academic backing for it. Education studies by distance learning are the broadest route into that, and your vocational training often counts towards the degree. There is one thing the subject does not do, and I start with that.
Positioning
What education studies are, and what they are not
No other subject is so regularly mistaken for something it is not.
A distance degree in education studies does not, as a rule, lead into state school teaching. That is the most important sentence on this page, and it is heard far too late far too often. Teaching in Germany runs through a dedicated teacher training degree for the relevant school type, with the prescribed teaching subjects, followed by the preparatory service known as Referendariat. Each federal state decides for itself what it accepts. An education studies degree does not meet those requirements, not even at master's level.
Lateral entry programmes into schools do exist, but they depend on shortage subjects, school type and the situation in the individual state. They are an exception, not a standard route, so ask your state school authority before you enrol.
What the subject genuinely is: the study of learning and development across the whole lifespan, with a clear focus outside the school system. Programmes cover learning theory, adult didactics, developmental psychology, sociology of education and empirical research methods. How it sits next to its neighbours:
- Teacher training qualifies you for classroom teaching, with Referendariat and a state examination or a Master of Education.
- Social work, if the programme is built for it, leads to state recognition and therefore into public authorities, counselling services and casework. The mechanics are on social work and state recognition.
- Early childhood education narrows the focus to the first years of life and leads into nursery leadership and specialist advisory roles, see early childhood education by distance learning.
- Social management runs organisations in business terms, so it works on the system rather than with the individual, see social management by distance learning.
Admission
Without Abitur, and usually through your own job
Most applicants do not arrive from school. They arrive from ten years of practice.
Completed vocational training plus several years of relevant practice opens university access for a subject-related degree with many providers, and what counts as related is answered more generously here than in almost any other field. The backgrounds I see in first consultations:
- Educators, curative education and social assistance professions. The classic route, unquestioned academically and with the largest credit potential.
- In-company trainers. Anyone holding the German trainer aptitude qualification, the AEVO certificate, and supervising apprentices for years already brings exactly the practice the degree is about.
- Trainers and lecturers from the open further education market. Often without a formal qualification in the field, but with documented teaching hours.
- Health and care professions with practice instructor training. That qualification is a pedagogical one and is treated as such.
The three formal routes behind this are always the same, and they are set out on studying without Abitur: training plus working years, an advanced vocational qualification such as Fachwirt or Meister that often carries general university entrance, or a trial semester when the paperwork is thin. Which one applies to you depends on your federal state and on the provider, not on your CV alone.
Credit transfer
What your prior learning is worth
The lever that turns six years into four and a half.
Educational training professions are formally regulated, with documented learning fields and hour counts, which is precisely what a university needs to award credit. The usual building blocks are a flat block for the state-recognised qualification, further points for advanced training such as practice instruction or the AEVO certificate, and an individual review of relevant working years.
The arithmetic shows what that is worth. A bachelor's degree carries 180 ECTS. If training and additional qualifications together bring 45, then 135 remain. At 15 ECTS per semester that is nine semesters, so four and a half years instead of six. You changed nothing about your daily routine and gained eighteen months. For learning acquired outside higher education, a ceiling of 50 percent of a programme's ECTS normally applies.
The order matters: settle the credit question first, choose the university second. With identical prior learning, two providers can easily be two semesters apart. How the procedure works is explained under credit transfer and credit for work experience.
Workload
Time and cost, realistically
Education reads easily and is still paid for in hours.
| ECTS per semester | Hours per week | In daily life | Bachelor takes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | around 7 to 8 | one evening plus half a Saturday | 18 years, only sensible for single modules |
| 10 | around 15 | two evenings plus one free day | 9 years, 6 to 7 with credit |
| 15 | around 22 | workable as long as evening commitments stay rare | 6 years, 4.5 with credit |
| 20 | around 30 | effectively a second part-time job | 4.5 years |
Calculated with 30 hours per ECTS credit and roughly 20 active weeks per semester. How to work out your own number is explained under ECTS per semester.
A warning for this subject in particular: educational texts read fluently, which is exactly why so many people underestimate the load. The volume sits in written assignments, empirical exercises and the statistics in almost every education curriculum, not in the reading.
On cost, part-time bachelor programmes typically sit at a few hundred euros per month. What counts is not the monthly rate but the total at a realistic pace, and that total falls mainly through credit transfer, details under what distance learning costs. If you work for an education provider, a conversation about a contribution is worth having, see getting your employer to pay.
Afterwards
Where the degree leads
Three directions that differ sharply in daily routine and demands.
People development
Corporate training, onboarding, leadership development, learning platforms. Predictable hours and solid pay, in exchange for constant justification against budgets.
Education management
Programme planning, quality management and project leadership with providers, associations and foundations. Furthest from learners, the most room to shape things.
An honest note on salary: the degree alone rarely changes it, the changed position does. In publicly funded education, pay follows collective agreements, and a bachelor's degree is often the formal ticket into a higher bracket, but only the ticket. More on that under salary after your degree, and on going deeper under part-time master's degrees.
Common questions
Education studies by distance learning
The questions that come up in almost every first consultation.
Can a distance degree in education studies make me a schoolteacher?
As a rule, no. Teaching at a state school in Germany requires a dedicated teacher training degree for the relevant school type, followed by the preparatory service known as Referendariat. Each federal state decides for itself what it accepts. A distance degree in education studies qualifies you for work outside the school system, not for a teaching post.
Can I study education without Abitur?
With many providers, yes. Completed vocational training plus several years of relevant practice opens access to a subject-related degree, and educational training professions clearly qualify as related. An advanced vocational qualification such as Fachwirt or Meister often brings general university entrance and therefore free choice of subject.
How much of my training as an educator counts towards the degree?
The university decides, and the differences are large. The usual building blocks are a flat block of credit for state-recognised training, further points for advanced qualifications, and an individual review of relevant working years. For learning acquired outside higher education, a ceiling of 50 percent of a programme's ECTS normally applies.
How does this differ from social work?
A properly structured social work degree leads to state recognition and therefore to a protected professional title that many public authorities and providers require. Education studies do not. The subject is broader and strongest in adult education, training and people development. If you want casework, choose social work.
How much time do I need per week?
Plan with roughly 30 hours of workload per ECTS credit. At 10 ECTS per semester that is about 15 hours per week, at 15 ECTS around 22. Alongside a full-time job, 10 to 15 ECTS is the workable range for most people. Plan for your busiest week, not your quietest one.
Next step
What is actually possible in your case
Admission, credit transfer and the right programme settled in one conversation.
Levels in this subject
Which level fits your goal?
The same subject, two different answers. Each level has its own admission routes and leads somewhere else.
Bachelor part-time
No route into school teaching, admission through your own job
Master part-time
No route into school teaching, entry from other fields
Information Notice
The information on this page is general in nature and based on my advisory practice (last updated 31.07.2026). It does not replace an official credit transfer or recognition decision by the respective university and is not legal advice. Specific decisions are made by universities, the ZAB (Germany), the BMBWF (Austria), or the SBFI (Switzerland). I clarify binding next steps with you in the initial consultation.