Educational leave in Hesse: This is what you need to bear in mind

Educational leave in Hesse is an entitlement to paid leave for employees recognized in the federal state of Hesse. This leave serves the personal and professional development of the employee. Within the annual five days of educational leave, the employee can take different educational measures and have these recognized as paid educational leave with his employee.

Every employee who is employed by a company in Hesse and who has been employed by this company for at least 6 months without interruption is entitled to educational leave in Hesse. However, there are some minor exceptions. For example, marginally employed persons (mini-jobbers) and part-time employees with a weekly working time of less than 20 hours are not entitled to educational leave in Hessen.

Furthermore, the entitlement to educational leave in Hessen also depends on the industry. The following industries are not legally entitled to educational leave in Hesse:

Agriculture and horticulture
Trade: employees in retail and wholesale trade
Hospitality industry
Construction

If you are employed in one of these industries, you can still contact your employer. There may be an individual agreement with your employer that allows you to participate in the education program in Hessen.

Educational leave in Hesse includes all educational measures that serve to impart vocational and general educational knowledge or to promote personal development. This includes the following:

EDP courses
Language courses at home and abroad
Personal development
Courses for professional development
Stress reduction (Yoga, Qi Gong etc.)

There is a large selection of courses that can be recognized during your educational leave. So there is certainly something for you.

In Hesse, you can take up to 5 days of educational leave per year. If you have not taken any educational leave in one year, you can take a full 10 days of recognized educational leave in the following year.

You must submit your application for educational leave to your employer. The application must be submitted to the employer at least four weeks before the start of the educational measure.

As long as the educational measure is within the scope of the guidelines and you submit your application to your employer completely filled out and on time, the employer must approve the application for educational leave in Hesse.

The costs for educational leave in Hesse are borne by the employee, the employer and the Employment Agency. The employee bears the costs, the employer the loss of earnings and the employment agency the costs for the educational measure.

Educational events that are recognized by law and ultimately must also be recognized by your employer are listed in the Educational Leave Act for Hesse.

This is regulated in § 12 of the Hessian Educational Leave Act. According to this law, such educational events are eligible for recognition if they take place on five consecutive days and no one is excluded. In addition, the purpose of personal, cultural, vocational or political education must be fulfilled and there must be an underlying learning concept.

However, this should not be a problem for booking your educational event, because the organizers usually mark their educational events so that they can be recognized as educational leave.