Essentials

The Performance Report 2020 summarises the achievements of the ARGE BHÖ. The statistical data presented is based on the ARGE statistics, which are part of the KEBÖ statistics 2020 and the monitoring report on the performance agreement with the Ministry of Education. 

The year 2020 was marked by the Covid 19 pandemic and the associated legal restrictions. Many educational institutions severely restricted or even completely closed their educational operations for months. Only events that were legally feasible were held. Accordingly, there was a high decline in events, teaching units and participation. In total the educational institutions of the ARGE BHÖ held 8,559 events in 2020. Compared to the previous year this is a decrease of 47%. The number of teaching units declined accordingly. Here, the decline was reflected by 50 %. A total of 78,435 teaching units were held. The decline in the number of participants is even more serious, namely 61%. In total the educational institutions were able to count 153,789 participants.

Events

The steady rise in educational events and the great numbers of recent years was abruptly stopped this year. Covid-19 threw back the number of events by 47 % to the level of 2005. There were 8,559 educational events in 2020. Due to the shift to online events, which tend to last less than 4 TU, the decline in short events (up to 4 TU) has been slightly less than in courses and seminars (more than 4 TU), at 42 %. These have halved. A total of 3,346 short events and 5,213 courses and seminars were held. Most events were held in the area of society/politics/science. This area takes up 26% in 2020. The area of health/wellness/sport comes in second place with 19%, followed by the area of art/creativity with 17%. In 2020, 3,346 in-house and 610 collaborations (pact VAs) were carried out. Naturally, there is a decrease especially in international guest courses (62 %) and in Austrian guest courses by 48 %.  The total number of in-house training events fell by 46 %.

Teaching Units

Parallel to the events, the number of teaching units has also fallen. A total of 78,435 teaching units were held. This is a decrease of 50 % compared to the previous year. Due to the decline in attendance, the number of participation units also fell by 62 %. An in-house event lasted on average 8 teaching units and a guest event 9 teaching units. For in-house and packaged events, the decline is 43% and 55% respectively.

Participations

A decrease of 61% was recorded in the number of participations. A total of 241,969 participations were counted. The higher percentage decline in participation compared to the decline in events shows that the events were held with smaller groups than in the previous year. The decline in participation in the longer events (over 4 units) amounts to 62% with a minus of 152,198 participants. For the shorter events (less than 4 units), there was a decrease of 89,771 participants, i.e. 60%. Considering that basic education was exempt from the Covid 19 restrictions, the 86% decrease is surprisingly high. Most areas show a decrease of about 60-40 %. Only the area of society/politics/science is lower at 37 %. This value can be attributed to the special regulation for scientific educational events. Events in the area of EDP and IT have remained almost the same, at only 2%. It is possible that online seminars have been used more in this area. The Covid 19 crisis had no effect on the gender distribution. The proportion of women is still higher, at 57% in 2020.  

Overnight stays

Naturally, the number of overnight stays also fell by 59%. A total of 61,949 guests stayed overnight in the educational institutions in 2020. 

Employees

Despite short-time work, the number of employees was reduced by 15 %. 485 people were employed in the education houses. Of these, 352 were women and 215 part-time employees. Fortunately, there are only 3  pedagogical employees less. These are not due to Covid dismissals, but to the closure of the Bildungshaus Stift St. Georgen am Längsee.

ARGE BHÖ Courses

In 2020, a total of 105 staff members from the 18 Bildungshäuser participated in the 7 training events organised by ARGE BHÖ. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, some events did not take place or were held online. 

In addition, online meetings were held for specific professional groups (heads, education managers, department heads), which were mainly used for exchange of ideas and experiences.

Activities of the Board

The activity of the ARGE BHÖ and its board has not been affected by the Corona crisis. The six board members met for three two-day board meetings. In addition, a short online meeting was convened on the occasion of the Corona pandemic. The General Assembly and Annual Conference were divided into two parts and each was held as a hybrid event. The General Assembly took place on 2 June 2020 at BH St. Hippolyt and the Annual Conference on the theme "We strengthen the region!" on 5-6 October 2020 at BH Schloss Krastowitz. In order to comply with safety regulations, only one person per Bildungshaus was invited. The chairman Günther Lengauer or his successor Erich Wagner-Walser and Gaby Filzmoser attended the KEBÖ meetings or the events of the cooperative system.  By holding many events online, it was also possible for more people to participate in national and international education policy events. In addition, some online events Gaby Filzmoser was able to contribute her expertise. As a result, the number of visits to conferences increased to a total of 74 participations (38 in the previous year). 

While the Radio Award of Austrian Adult Education could still take place in its usual form in January, the Television Award Ceremony was first postponed and finally carried out as a live broadcast.   

On behalf of the Cooperative System of Austrian Adult Education, the business field "Education Management" was again managed by Gaby Filzmoser. This year, the course secretariat was additionally taken over by ARGE BHÖ. Bianca Baumgartner took over the tasks from Anneliese Laimer, who retired. Most of the modules of the course could be carried out as planned. Only a few were conducted online or postponed. In 2020, individual modules were not only available to course participants, but were also opened to other interested parties and publicly advertised by Bifeb. 

The internationalisation measures suffered from the Covid 19 restrictions. The approved Erasmus+ mobilities were not carried out. Nevertheless, there was a crowning finale at the end of 2020, with Gaby Filzmoser being awarded the title of Erasmus+ Adult Education Ambassador 2020.  

Dr.ⁱⁿ Gaby Filzmoser BA MA

Managing Director of ARGE BHÖ

April, 2021

Details im Jahresbericht 2020 (pdf) (German)