Almost every employee in Germany can take paid extra leave for further training courses for at least five days a year – even abroad. Hardly anyone knows this offer – and even fewer use it.
It almost sounds too good to be true: paid leave to improve your education, to do something good for your mind or body. According to the law, employees in Germany are entitled to five to ten days of additional educational leave – at least in 14 out of 16 federal states. Bavaria and Saxony are the exceptions.
However, only a few employees take advantage of this opportunity, and many professionals are completely unaware of the possibility. The offers range from specialist seminars, for example in the area of controlling, to prevention courses such as yoga or fasting hikes.
“These courses can take place worldwide and partly online and do not necessarily have to be related to the job,” says Lara Körber from the Berlin start-up “AZ Bildungszeit”. The start-up operates the online platform “Bildungsurlauber.de”, which providers can use to publish their seminars.
Every federal state regulates educational leave differently
The right to educational leave is regulated differently depending on the federal state, as is the question of which form of educational leave is recognized. “That is why it is important to take a close look at what is valid in the area in which you work,” says Till Bender, spokesman for the legal protection department of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB).
In some cases, the concept is not called educational leave, but educational leave or educational time. In Bavaria and Saxony there is basically no right to educational leave, but you can still ask your employer here whether support is possible, says Lara Körber.
“If you can make it plausible to your boss that it’s useful for your work, that’s always a good argument,” says Bender. Then the costs could also be taken over proportionally or overtime could be reduced. In principle, the fees for the seminars lie with the employee.
What do I want and what will bring me further?
But how do working people choose something suitable from the multitude of offers? The first step is to think about what you want to do and what will help you professionally or privately. Perhaps such a course is also a good plus for the next salary negotiation, if employees develop skills that enable a career jump.
Pages like those of the DGB-Bildungswerk, “InfoWeb further education” or “Bildungsurlauber.de” help to get a good overview of offers and deadlines as well as requirements.
In addition, you should make sure that the training provider or the course is certified accordingly. If in doubt, interested parties can ask the provider. In each federal state there are also different deadlines by when you have to submit the application for educational leave to the employer.
Pick up the team
It is important to consult with the team and of course with the line manager, says Lara Körber. Employees should ideally get an overview in advance of when the time is right.
“Explain your own motivation,” advises Körber. After a successful seminar, for example, you can report to the team on the knowledge gained, if it fits the work. In the short term, the employer lacks a person, but in the long term it is a sensible investment, also to motivate the employees and to become attractive to others.
In some cases, employers do not go away completely empty-handed. In Hesse, for example, there is a regulation according to which the employer is reimbursed for part of the exemption costs in smaller companies with fewer than 20 employees, explains DGB expert Till Bender. In some federal states, the employer receives financial support for voluntary issues.
Rejection only under certain conditions
As a rule, employers cannot simply refuse educational leave. There are fixed reasons, according to Till Bender: If around a third of the employees have already taken educational leave that year, then you can no longer apply for one. In Baden-Württemberg only ten percent of employees are allowed to take educational leave each year.
“If the going gets tough, you can take urgent action against the rejection,” says Bender. How sensible that is, however, is another matter.
If the educational leave was refused, the employer must give the applicant preferential leave depending on the federal state, for example for a different desired period. If it doesn’t work at all in one year, in some countries the educational leave days of two years can even be added up.
The costs for a course or seminar are tax-deductible as income-related expenses if there is a professional connection, as Körber explains. “Courses like yoga or mindfulness are even subsidized by many health insurance companies.”