Contiva at a glance

• Donnerstag, 18.06.2026 zwischen 10-14 Uhr
• Freitag, 06.11.2026 zwischen 10-14 Uhr

Purpose and goal

Contiva was founded in 1996 under the name Job Club as a non-profit association with the purpose of offering labour market measures for people who are unemployed or threatened with unemployment. To this end, the association ran a course and meeting centre. The aim was to improve the chances of reintegration into the primary labour market or to prevent joblessness through preventive measures.

In 2023, the association changed its name to Contiva in order to better address private individuals. The aim is to offer the expertise gained from advising people on their current position and job search to people who want to reorient themselves.

Association members and board

The supreme body of the Contiva Association is the Association Assembly. Interested private individuals and the Surprise association are represented in it. The members of the association elect the association's board.

Financing

The Contiva Association provides services for various clients within the framework of service agreements. It is financed by fees for these services and does not receive any subsidies from government bodies.

Contiva creates individual career prospects and empowers people in the world of work.

We are passionate about supporting people in their professional development and promoting equal opportunities with individual counselling and practical offers.

We support people at all qualification levels in developing new career prospects and help them to realise them: from the search for suitable jobs and employers, the preparation of innovative application documents and support during the application process, to the placement of suitable jobs or internships.

On behalf of government clients, Contiva supports unemployed people in their job search and integration into the primary labour market.

We also support employees of all qualification levels within the company when it comes to career changes. Wherever possible, we take preventative action if there is a risk of unemployment.

We offer a wide range of courses and coaching services in the areas of career assessment, application training, coaching, career counselling and job placement for private and institutional clients.

We approach people and their potential with curiosity and optimism. In doing so, we pursue the following andragogical guiding principles:

• Experience-based learning and motivation: The target group-orientated teaching of the subject matter in the course modules takes into account the individual requirements of the participants, their personal situation, their educational biography and also their expectations. Wherever possible, existing knowledge is reactivated and built upon. The aim is to strengthen participants' motivation and self-confidence. The methods are therefore varied in order to cater for all types of learners and increase motivation.
  
  
• Self-directed and activity-orientated learning: The course is designed to enable participants to act independently in the application process. The content is structured in such a way that participants improve their skills step by step. Independent learning and thus independence are encouraged. We emphasise reflection and feedback in order to deepen learning and strengthen the applicability of what has been learned in real-life situations.
  
  
• Flexibility and interaction: The lessons are always clearly structured: Participants receive an overview of the topics and content at the beginning of each lesson. During the lessons, the course leader regularly provides information on where the lesson is currently at in terms of content, and at the end of a lesson there is a review of the topics covered. Despite the structural framework, we organise the lessons in such a way that the participants can get involved and help shape individual lesson sequences. We also adapt the learning path to the learning requirements of the participants.
  
  
• Participation and orientation towards the application: The course leader gives brief inputs and gathers the participants' prior knowledge. They then guide the participants to an activity to work on the content. This may involve tasks for reflection, discussion with the person sitting next to them or in the group, a writing assignment or the preparation and delivery of a short presentation to the group. We are committed to the personal and professional development of our students and enable them to learn and work independently within a clear framework.
  
  
• Problem-orientation and self-reflection: Holistic learning and working in individual and constantly changing groups is a central component of the course concept, as in addition to teaching subject, methodological and media skills, the promotion of social, performance and self-competence is also of crucial importance. We incorporate new media and enable participants to improve their media skills.
  
  
• Respect and recognition: We attach great importance to respectful interaction with each other, but also from the course leader to the participants. It is important to us that participants feel comfortable in our courses so that they can achieve their goals. Our methodological and didactic approaches are based on the latest findings in adult education, didactics and learning psychology. In our understanding, learning is an active, constructive, situational, social and goal-orientated process.

• We are committed to career prospects and share our knowledge.
• We approach people and their potential with curiosity and optimism.
• We cultivate a warm, welcoming culture.
• We want to make a difference - and we are happy to experiment.
• Our foundations are solid.
• We know what we can do. We tackle new things with foresight.
• We treat each other with trust as equals and remain ourselves.
• We also face our daily challenges with a pinch of humour.
• We believe in self-organisation and uncomplicated cooperation. Overview and transparency are important to us.
• The Contiva association enables a wide range of tasks and functions. We seize our opportunities independently.

As a teaching and learning institution, we are committed to continuous quality assurance and further development at all levels.

eduQua certification
Since 2003, Contiva has been eduQua-certified. Thanks to careful quality management, we fulfil the criteria set for a further education institution. Audits guarantee the high level of quality.