Only 0.6% of Brandenburg Workers Use Paid Educational Leave — A Mushroom Course Shows the Gap

Early on 24 October 2026, a report highlighted that in 2025 only around 5,800 workers out of Brandenburg's roughly 938,300 employees — about 0.6 per cent — used Bildungsurlaub, the legally guaranteed right to up to ten working days of paid educational leave within a two-year period. The article profiles mycologist Dana Lafuente, who founded her mushroom school in 2023 and runs certified identification courses in Templin, in the Uckermark district, that officially qualify as educational leave. Participants come from across Germany seeking a break from desk-based work, and one attendee noted the leave does not have to be related to your profession. The union Verdi criticised employers, ministries and vocational schools for failing to promote the entitlement actively, calling awareness far too low. Usage has been recovering since the pandemic, when only around 4,300 Brandenburg workers were granted leave in 2022, but the education ministry acknowledged that active promotion by individual employers remains the exception rather than the rule.