Controlling and evaluation of employment promotion and the employment services in Germany

Abstract

"In many European countries, employment administrations have untergone changes in recent years in order to become more effective and efficient. Although the same process occured in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), most of the basic structures have been maintained. At the federal level employment promotion has been subject to the provisions of Social Code III since early 1998, this law gave new impetus to this trend and defined a framework characterized by the key words: new promotion 'philosophy' new schemes, decentralisation, and regionalisation. It includes new provisions for controlling and evaluation. Major elements of this new system will be discussed below: particularly important are the statutory Eingliederungsbilanzen (output evaluations) and the goals used as a means of control of the impact on the labour-market. Eingliederungsbilanzen include detailed and standardised input and output indicators, but no outcome indicators. The most important part of the Eingliederungsbilanz are the data on the employment status of each individual 'a reasonable period after completion of a programme'. To control placement, counselling and development of labour-market policy instruments, labour market-related policy priorities are agreed at all levels of the employment adiministration. However, currently this goal controlling is only intended to affect factora that can be quantified in the short tern m - a fundamental problem. For goals affecting the labour-market, quality management will be needed which must then be integrated into the emerging system of goal agreements. One section of the paper outlines a systematic framework that helps to put the individual aspects described in perspective. The relationships between the concepts of monitoring, controlling and evaluation are established and the current problems are duscussed. Finally, parallel developments at the level of the EU are mentioned." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Brinkmann, C. (1999): Controlling and evaluation of employment promotion and the employment services in Germany. In: IAB Labour Market Research Topics No. 36, p. 1-28.