In the context of lifelong learning, continuing education has established itself as an important transfer channel at universities in recent decades. Continuing education programs promote social and economic innovation and serve to increase knowledge and skills among specialists and managers, qualifying them for current and future requirements in the professional world. These programs operate at the intersection between research and professional practice and contribute to the effective transfer of scientific knowledge into practice. Especially in challenging times, innovative continuing education programs help to address social challenges, strengthen motivation to learn, and promote educational equity. Continuing education promotes permeability and openness to non-traditional, professionally experienced target groups, thus contributing to (educational) democratization and the creation of equal opportunities.

Society's growing demand for lifelong learning, scientifically sound and flexible learning opportunities, as well as economic and technological developments, requires new qualifications and skills in ever shorter cycles – while educational policy frameworks are slow to change. Although structural conditions have improved, funding initiatives have been created, and the establishment of certificate programs based on the DGWF transparency grid has begun, key questions remain unanswered. Providers of continuing education programs still operate in a dynamic field of tension: they compete with competitors in the open education market while at the same time having to meet educational policy requirements and social expectations that are often geared toward undergraduate teaching and are not always suitable for continuing education programs. The resulting need for progressiveness and finding solutions increasingly defines the role of continuing education institutions. But is continuing education equipped for the demands of the future? What challenges will it encounter and how can it prepare for them?

Under the title “Future Lab Continuing Education” the DGWF Annual Conference 2026 invites participants to develop, discuss, and reflect on new scenarios for continuing education. The focus is on the systematic development, discussion, and classification of future endeavours that could be significant in the context of continuing education—in terms of content and target groups, as well as formats, governance, framework conditions, and social impact.

The aim is to identify different possible visions of the future and explore their implications for education policy, academic institutions, and professional practice, as well as synergies with undergraduate teaching. What possible, probable, and desirable futures will shape the continuing education of tomorrow—and how can we shape them actively today? How could continuing education position itself in different visions of the future? What skills, structures, and formats would be conceivable? And how can universities and continuing education institutions make and pave the way for bold and strategically necessary decisions?

A particular focus will be placed on international university partners – for example, from European university alliances and other global collaborations, to open a broader international perspective. What future developments are conceivable in this context? How can we jointly shape an international educational space characterized by openness, mobility, digital connectivity, and shared responsibility for education and research? What role can continuing education play here, drawing on its strengths in openness, flexible formats, diversity, and didactic innovation?

This is precisely where the DGWF Annual Conference 2026 positions itself: as a space for experimentation and reflection–a future lab in which participants collaboratively develop visions for the future.