Educational leave – entitlement, applications and course determination
Different regulations at state level
If you would like to develop professionally or personally, you can choose from many further education offers. But how can continuing education and professional activity be reconciled? Educational leave is intended for exactly such situations. During this period, the employer must grant employees paid leave. This means that you have the opportunity to attend a course or seminar without having to use your regular vacation days for this. Instead, employees get additional free days on which they can continue their education. The further training does not necessarily have to be related to the job.
Whether and how many days you are entitled to educational leave depends on the respective federal state. In 14 of the 16 federal states there is a legal entitlement to further education leave. The only exceptions are Bavaria and Saxony. Under which circumstances you can still take paid leave for further training can be found in the valid collective bargaining and employment contracts.
The following list shows you how many days of educational leave you are entitled to in your federal state:
- Baden-Württemberg: 5 working days per calendar year
- Berlin: 10 working days per two calendar years
- Brandenburg: 10 working days per two calendar years
- Bremen: 10 working days per two calendar years
- Hamburg: 10 working days per two calendar years
- Hessen: 10 working days per two calendar years
- Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: 5 working days per calendar year
- Lower Saxony: 10 working days per two calendar years
- North Rhine-Westphalia: 10 working days per two calendar years
- Rhineland-Palatinate: 10 working days per two calendar years
- Saarland: 6 working days per calendar year
- Saxony-Anhalt: 14 working days per two calendar years
- Schleswig-Holstein: 10 working days per two calendar years
- Thuringia: 5 working days per calendar year
The decisive factor is usually the state in which you work – and not the one in which you live. Important: For part-time employees, the entitlement to educational leave is reduced depending on their weekly working hours. Separate regulations also apply to civil servants and trainees.
These requirements must be met
In order to be able to assert your legal entitlement to educational leave, you must be employed by your employer. Students, housewives and pensioners are not entitled to educational leave. This regulation is independent of the federal state. Otherwise, you should find out about everything important in good time so that you can apply for educational leave in good time.
In addition, you must find out whether the selected course is recognized for educational leave. Typically, one can attend language courses, complete a computer course, enroll in a course on digitization in the workplace, or enroll in a course on a current or political issue. Rhetoric courses, relaxation training or courses on stress management are also possible. To what extent the selected seminar is permissible for the application for educational leave can be inquired directly from the training provider.
Which training is right for me?
The greater the range of further training opportunities, the faster you feel overwhelmed. In order to find the right training, you should ask yourself where you currently stand professionally and where you want to go. For example, there are seminars and courses that give you a recognized qualification. You can also score points in the next application with a certificate from an IT or rhetoric course. In principle, a distinction must be made between further training in which hard skills are acquired and offers in which soft skills such as leadership qualities are promoted.
Who can I turn to to find individually suitable educational offers? Finding a suitable training course at Kursnet is very easy. The database of the employment agency enables a regional search using relevant search terms. As the largest training and further education database, it is a great help for many.
In 3 simple steps to educational leave
According to statistics, only a few employers take educational leave. Only one to three percent of employees who are entitled to educational leave actually submit an application. Many shy away from the bureaucratic effort. It is not that difficult to apply for further training leave. We show step by step how to do it.
Before you can start submitting your application, you must of course know whether and how much educational leave you are entitled to. With this knowledge in mind, you can choose a seminar you would like to attend. It is important that this is recognized in the respective federal state as part of educational leave.
It is best to start looking for a further education offer early on. After all, the application for vacation is linked to certain deadlines. In Lower Saxony and Bremen there is a 4-week period before the start of further training, in Berlin, Brandenburg, Hamburg, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein it is 6 weeks, for Baden- Württemberg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Thuringia, the application must be submitted 8 weeks in advance.
Those who register for further training receive the documents they need to apply for educational leave from the training provider. In some companies there are official application forms that you only have to fill out. Alternatively, you can also write an informal letter. This should include a request for leave for educational leave and the time period. It is advisable to submit the further training documents at the same time.
If you are legally entitled to educational leave, the employer may not reject the application without reason. If he does not want to grant the exemption, he must justify this correctly and comprehensibly. A valid reason is, for example, a staff shortage if too many colleagues have submitted vacation days in the selected period.
Important: The rejection should be given in writing. Together with the works council or staff council, it can then be checked whether the rejection is legal.
If the employer agrees to the educational leave, nothing stands in the way of further training. You will receive all the necessary documents in good time from the seminar provider. There you will later receive a confirmation of participation, which you must then submit to your employer.
In addition to educational leave, there are many other funding options for further education that you can take advantage of – such as the education voucher. The responsible employment agency will advise interested parties individually about all the options.