The number of registrations at German adult education centers fell steadily during the Corona years. While there were still more than eight million course registrations in the pre-Corona year 2019, the number fell to around 4.5 million in 2020 and to almost three million in 2021, as a spokeswoman for the German Adult Education Association said. There are still no valid figures for 2022, but the pre-crisis level is far from being reached.
One reason: There are still precautions at some adult education centers that are not mandatory, but that may no longer be implemented in other areas of public life. As an example, the spokeswoman gave some of the distance rules that still apply or the recommendation to wear a mask. In addition, there are reservations among the participants about meeting again in larger groups, especially since the infection process is still wavy, said the spokeswoman. The spokeswoman could not give a forecast as to when the numbers from 2019 could be reached again.
“But where adult education centers are now most likely to return to the number of registrations from before Corona is in the area of integration courses. That has to do with the influx of refugees from Ukraine.” Since the start of the energy crisis, there has recently been an enormous demand for courses on all aspects of energy.