Serviceportal–Baden-Württemberg

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Apply for training leave

You can take up to five days off work per year for further training, with your employer’s permission. During this time off, your employer will continue to pay your wages, salary or emoluments. You can use this paid time for:

professional development,
political development, and
gaining qualifications for voluntary work.

If you regularly work fewer than five days a week, your entitlement is reduced accordingly.
Apprentices and students at the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University are entitled to five working days over the course of their entire apprenticeship or degree programme, limited to the areas of political further education and training for voluntary work.
Educational leave is also known in other federal states as ‘Bildungsfreistellung’, ‘Bildungsurlaub’ or ‘Arbeitnehmerweiterbildung’.

Forms/Online Services

Responsible department

Your employer

Details

Prerequisite

You are

an employee,
an apprentice,
a student at the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University,
a civil servant, or a judge.

You have been in employment or on a training programme for at least 12 months.
The training programme
- is run by a recognised educational institution,
- involves an average of 6 hours of teaching per day,
- falls within the scope of vocational or political further education, or is a qualification for your voluntary work, and
- is consistent with the free and democratic basic order as defined by the Basic Law and with the Constitution of the State of Baden-Württemberg.

Procedure

Submit a written request to your employer for study leave, including the following information:

Date,
content,
provider of the training programme and
details regarding the provider’s accreditation under the Baden-Württemberg Educational Leave Act.

Tip: Use the recommended application form for this purpose. You can find this by following the link in the further information section.

The employer must make a decision no later than four weeks after receiving the application. If they fail to do so, the educational leave is deemed to have been approved. These deadlines are intended to ensure planning certainty for both parties.

Your employer may only reject the application for educational leave

if there are urgent operational reasons preventing it, for example, if other colleagues’ annual leave or sick leave is already causing significant disruption to business operations,

if 10 per cent of the educational leave to which all employees in the company are entitled for the current year has already been taken or approved, or

if fewer than 10 people were employed by the company on 1 January of a given year.

Deadlines

no later than 9 weeks before the start of the programme

Required documents

Flyer for the educational event or
Extract from the provider’s programme

Once the training course has finished, you must provide your employer with a certificate of attendance without delay.

Costs

You will be required to pay the cost of the training course and, where applicable, your travel expenses.

Miscellaneous

none

Legal basis

Bildungszeitgesetz Baden-Württemberg (BzG BW)

Release note

machine generated, based on the German release by: Wirtschaftsministerium Baden-Württemberg, 28.07.2026