• Education, work and society
• Work-related learning: vocational education, professional development, in-company training, workplace learning, learning in and for simple work / low-skilled work and in the context of self-employment
• Educational governance in VET and adult education; including international comparison
• Actor- and subject-oriented approaches to work-related education
• Theory of Space and Place, Appropriation, sites of learning and architecture

• since 2021 Chair for Vocational Education and Training and Adult Education at the University of Zurich; 2009 - 2014 professor for adult education and continuing education at the University for Teacher Education FHNW; previously held various positions at the universities of Trier, Zurich, Konstanz, Heidelberg, and Osnabrück as well as at the University of Education Freiburg i.B.
• 2015 - 2021, member of the Executive Board of the University for Teacher Education FHNW, responsible for the continuing professional education department and head of the Institute for Continuing Education and Counseling
• Working as adult educator since 1996

• Studied educational science and German language and literature at the University of Trier, graduating in October 1999 with a degree in education, specializing in continuing education.
• Doctorate at the University of Zurich with the thesis «From Vocation to Employability? On the Theory of Earning-oriented Education» in April 2005
• Habilitation at the Helmut Schmidt University of Hamburg with the thesis «Education in the Context of Social Change and Transformation of Society: Adult Education and Vocational Education and Training» in June 2012 // at the University of Education Freiburg i.B. in June 2014 with the venia legendi for educational science with a focus on adult education/continuing education and vocational education

• Member of the Presidum of the European Society for Research on the Education of Adults ESREA (since 2026)
• Zurich University of Applied Sciences Council (link only in German)
• Member of the editorial board of International Journal of Vocational Education Studies (since 2024)
• Member of the editorial board of Education Permanente – Swiss Journal for Continuing Education  (link in German, French, and Italian)
• Co-editor of the series “Adult Education and Life-long Learning” (wbv media) (link only in German)
• Chairwoman of the Swiss Society for Applied Research in Vocational Education and Training (link in German, French, and Italian)
• Chairwoman of the Division Adult Education of the German Educational Research Association (GERA) (link only in German, 2021 - 2025)
• Member of the board of trustees of the Volkshochschule beider Basel (link only in German)
• Member of the scientific advisory board of the PIAAC Switzerland («Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competences», 2019 - 2025)
• Reviewer for various universities, research funding institutions, and journals (German/English)

ZORA Publication List (link only in German)

ORCID: 0000-0002-3847-4514