Education and intercultural competencies

The area of expertise Education and Intercultural competencies comprises research projects on the identification of prerequisites for the acquisition of education in different life phases and constellations and on the evaluation of measures in this thematic field. Our special expertise lies in accessing target groups that are difficult to address, for example, through multilingual survey instruments or proxy interviews, for example, in early childhood education topics.

The term “education” covers a number of very different topics, such as school education or vocational training, educational biographies, measures to reintegrate people into working life, or the empowerment of disadvantaged population groups. Education, for example language acquisition, is also an essential building block in the integration of refugees or people with a migration background. As a result of rapid social change, be it digitization, changes in the world of work, or migration movements, institutions involved in education and the acquisition of intercultural competencies are constantly faced with new challenges and issues.

The department “Education and Intercultural Competencies” bundles a variety of research projects that focus on current developments. The goal is to obtain objectifiable data that will result in concrete recommendations for action. Increasingly elaborate sampling and survey designs are required, as target groups are difficult to reach. infas has the repertoire of tools to recruit educationally disadvantaged people, people with a wide range of language skills, young people who are difficult for research to reach, and population minorities who are hard to address for studies.