Continuing education can increase your professional and personal opportunities, especially if you have not yet taken advantage of any continuing education opportunities or have been unable to do so.
Employees of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate have a legal right to educational leave (Bildungsfreistellung). Up to ten days are available to you to attend professional or sociopolitical continuing education courses. You do not have to take vacation for this – your salary is paid regularly by your employer during this time.
Below you will find the most important information and requirements at a glance:
Who?
Employees in Rhineland-Palatinate have a legal right to educational leave with continued payment of wages by their employer. This also applies to vocational trainees, civil servants, and judges in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The prerequisite is six months of employment with your current employer – this also applies to the vocational training relationship.
How?
You can choose which educational events you would like to attend.
At least six weeks before the start of the event, the educational leave must be submitted to your employer. Your employer can cancel participation up to three weeks before the start of the event if operational or official concerns are in conflict with this. Proof of the event must be submitted to your employer. You can find a corresponding sample application below or in the Service section (only available in German) of the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Transformation and Digitalization.
How long?
For employees, the educational leave amounts to ten days in a period of two calendar years, each starting with an odd-numbered calendar year (for example: 2021/2022). Vocational trainees are entitled to five days per vocational training year – but only for sociopolitical training.
You can also find more information on the homepage of the Ministry (only available in German).
Please note that Mainz University of Applied Sciences is required to report to the Ministry in accordance with Section 9 of the Educational Leave Act (Bildungsfreistellungsgesetz) in conjunction with Section 14 of the Educational Leave Act Implementation Regulations (Bildungsfreistellungsgesetz-Durchführungsverordnung) after the conclusion of an event. Therefore, if you take advantage of the educational leave, it is very important that you completely fill out the attached report sheet of the ministry and mail it to studium.wirtschaft (at) hs-mainz.de. Thank you.
