Smart synergies: eVEWA integrated into the Südwissen.de platform

The SÜDWISSEN office operates the Suedwissen.de platform, the statewide platform for continuing professional development courses offered by and at universities in Baden-Württemberg. All 48 state universities present their courses on a central platform via Suedwissen.de, making them visible and enabling inquiries and bookings through a fully digital process. The portal currently includes over 1.000 continuing education courses, which are updated and published in real time. A key component of the platform's operations is seminar and participant management. GRÜN eVEWA will ensure data quality, process efficiency and scalability.

Universities as actors in the continuing education initiative of the state of Baden-Württemberg

The history of SOUTHERN WISSEN The project "Weiter in Südbaden" (Continuing Education in Southern Baden) began in 2016. Together with Furtwangen University, the University of Freiburg developed the SÜDWISSEN brand and built the first version of the suedwissen.de platform, which was launched in 2020. Eight universities from Southern Baden participated. However, there was no accessible backend for them at that time; the continuing education courses were entered manually by the project staff.

On February 9, 2021, the State government of Baden-Württemberg the cross-departmental further training initiative CONTINUE.with.EDUCATION@BWOne component of this program was the project University continuing education@BW. With this initiative, the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts (MWK) supported the state universities of Baden-Württemberg in further developing structures designed to help establish new, demand-oriented qualification programs in the market. The 48 state universities, universities of applied sciences, universities of education, music academies, and other institutions of higher education participated in the "Hochschulweiterbildung@BW" project with their academic and artistic continuing education programs.

The University of Freiburg was commissioned by the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts (MWK) to manage and coordinate the overall project. The project's goal was to further develop the Südwissen.de platform in a needs-based manner, enabling the continuing education programs of participating universities to be jointly advertised and offered, and allowing interested individuals to apply or book programs directly. In addition, a statewide umbrella brand for continuing education at universities was developed and promoted through a large-scale campaign utilizing a broad media mix, with a focus on online marketing.

Software for continuing education administration and participant management

The project brief necessitated a technical realignment of Südwissen.de. Therefore, a centralized, modern, and multi-client capable solution was sought for the operational management of continuing education administration and participant management. Following a tender process, the choice fell on the... seminar management GRÜN VEWA is GRÜN Software Group, which can reflect both the heterogeneous structures of universities and the requirements for a nationwide platform.

Suedwissen.de This not only ensures visibility but also structured data management – ​​a key to success with over 1.000 continuously updated training courses.

The University Continuing Education@BW project concluded in 2024. To ensure its long-term success, structural funding was allocated for the first time in the Baden-Württemberg state budget for 2025/26. Furthermore, the 48 state universities in Baden-Württemberg committed themselves in a cooperation agreement to further increase the visibility of their continuing education programs within the "Southern Knowledge Network," to improve the framework for continuing education at universities, to strengthen the public relations efforts of the participating universities and institutions, to collaborate in a network to strengthen academic and artistic continuing education, and to support universities in the development of programs across institutions. The Southern Knowledge office, located at the University of Freiburg, handles the administrative coordination of the platform and network and supports the matching of universities with businesses and society for the development of new programs.

Modern access: AI recommendation, filter system and seamless booking via the eVEWA seminar management system.

The platform's user-friendliness was significantly enhanced during the modernization. The goal was not only to provide information to those interested in continuing education, but also to enable quick and intuitive navigation through the diverse range of courses. Johanna Kranich, Senior Product Owner at SÜDWISSEN, aptly summarizes this approach: "At SÜDWISSEN, you don't have to search for long – because here you'll find one thing above all else: what you're looking for. Simply answer four questions in the AI ​​recommendation tool and receive directly relevant suggestions." The homepage offers a central selection entry point, supplemented by categories, filters, and a preview view for individual courses. When a user clicks on "All Details," the content is displayed directly from the... Seminar management eVEWA Downloaded. This includes training descriptions, dates, contact persons, costs and digital documents.

The subsequent registration workflow is designed as a seamless system transition. Although the checkout is technically already fully integrated into the GRÜNEven though the web app is used, the platform's visual style remains unchanged. This means users don't notice that they've switched interfaces. After booking is complete, the data flows back to the VEWA seminar management system in real time and is immediately available to the respective university for further processing.

Individual customizations: client model and efficient data collection

The collaboration between SÜDWISSEN and the GRÜN Software Group The goal was to optimally structure seminar administration for a network of 48 universities. Each university has its own structure within the eVEWA installation and sees only its own data. User management is autonomous, ensuring clear responsibilities and compliance with data protection requirements.

Central to the data logic is the two-tiered product/offer model. It separates permanent master data ("products") from variable implementation details ("offers"). This allows universities to efficiently maintain their continuing education programs and avoid errors caused by copying or multiple entries. A product can remain permanently visible, while bookable offers are automatically shown or hidden depending on registration deadlines and dates.

To further accelerate data entry, a one-pager was developed. It allows users to create or update an offer using just a few key parameters such as date, registration deadline, and price. For a network of this size, this process is a significant efficiency factor. Johanna Kranich summarizes the result: “We are very satisfied with the implementation and reliability of eVEWA. The collaboration with GRÜN was excellent – ​​we were able to implement all requirements together in a structured and timely manner.”

Results and outlook: eVEWA as the central seminar management system for Baden-Württemberg

The integration of the VEWA seminar management system into Südwissen.de has digitized, structured, and sustainably professionalized continuing academic education in Baden-Württemberg. Universities benefit from streamlined processes, reduced maintenance work, and greater flexibility. Interested individuals enjoy a modern user experience with AI support and seamless booking.

The next steps have already begun: Finalizing participant management and introducing a course data import function will further simplify the work of universities. Südwissen.de is thus consistently developing into one of the most modern continuing education platforms in the German-speaking world – with the eVEWA seminar management system as its stable foundation.