Employment- and Income Effects of Partial Vocational Qualifications

Abstract

""Partial qualifications" are a relatively new instrument of active labor market policy in Germany. They offer the opportunity to acquire individual modules or components of vocational qualification in selected occupational fields. In this way, they are intended to improve the job prospects of low-skilled workers, i.e. those without a completed vocational training, and to enable participants to gradually acquire a full vocational degree in the medium term by completing individual modules. However, little is known empirically so far about the use of partial qualifications and the effects on participants. In this paper, we use administrative data from the Federal Employment Agency and a statistical matching approach to investigate the effects of partial qualifications on employment and income. Our empirical results show that participants often complete only one partial qualification module out of several possible ones. Comparing participants of these partial qualifications with similar unemployed persons who do not participate, we find employment effects in the order of more than 10 to almost 15 percentage points, which are statistically significant. Effects on participants’ income are also positive and substantial. They may be driven by higher wages and better employment opportunities. In occupational fields in which both partial qualification and retraining are promoted, similarly high employment effects are found for both types of training measures. Retraining, however, has a somewhat higher positive effect on income." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © Springer-Verlag) ((en))

Cite article

Kruppe, T., Lang, J. & Osiander, C. (2023): Effekte von Teilqualifizierungen auf Beschäftigung und Einkommen. In: Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, Vol. 75, No. 4, p. 477-504. DOI:10.1007/s11577-023-00931-1