Subsidized further training of persons with low skills and of older employees by the Federal Employment Agency : results of a survey of establishments

Abstract

"The conceptual adjustments and the intensive advertising by the Federal Employment Agency have contributed to the fact that the WeGebAU Programme (Further Training of Low-skilled and Elderly Employees in Enterprises) has become better known in medium-sized and large establishments and is being increasingly taken advantage of. It has not been possible to achieve this in small-scale establishments. However, behind small shares there are large numbers, for by far the largest part of enterprises in Germany are small- and very small-scale businesses. This means that a considerable number of small-scale establishments are familiar with the instruments and take advantage of them. A further result of the establishment survey is the large portion of establishments that see no need to apply the measures within their business. Various reasons could be decisive for this assessment: Enterprises with fairly young and highly qualified personnel do not meet the prerequisites for support because they do not employ the target groups of the WeGebAU Programme, or establishments train on their own initiative so that they do not require public support. But the preventive intention of the WeGebAU may also be contrary to the qualification interests of individual establishments. Possibly many an establishment sees its requirements of further training mainly in specific in-house content matter. Subsidizing this, however, does not fall under the tasks of the Federal Employment Agency, nor does a broadly spread financing of further in-house training in general. Instead, the WeGebAU Programme should give impulses in order to induce establishments ultimately to undertake more further training activities of their own accord." (Text excerpt, IAB-Doku)

Cite article

Lott, M. (2012): Geförderte Weiterbildung von geringqualifizierten und älteren Beschäftigten durch die Bundesagentur für Arbeit. Ergebnisse einer Betriebsbefragung. In: Bundesinstitut für Bau-, Stadt- und Raumforschung (Hrsg.) (2012): Fachkräftemangel : ein neues, demografisch bedingtes Phänomen? (BBSR-Online-Publikation, 2012/02), p. 63-70.