Low-skilled workers who undertake continuing vocational training will soon be rewarded with a bonus. Successful completion of interim and final examinations will attract payments of €1,000 and €1,500 respectively. Grants are available to workers at small and medium-sized companies who pursue continuing training outside working hours.
More and more skilled workers are being sought in the wake of ongoing economic and technical structural change. Because those with few or no qualifications are being bypassed by the upturn in employment, the Federal Government is introducing a draft law which aims to improve occupational opportunities for the low skilled.
On the labour market, the cards are always stacked against the long-term unemployed and workers without a vocational qualification. Around 20 percent of low-skilled workers are unemployed, whereas the corresponding figure for those in possession of a vocational qualification is only five percent.
Anyone seeking to meet the challenge of future changes in the workplace needs to undergo training. Too few low skilled workers have been pursuing this route up until now. Nevertheless, growing numbers of young employees at SME’s are now seeking to pursue continuing training.
In some cases, this is a necessary step in order to improve basic skills such as reading, writing, mathematics or IT knowledge before embarking on a continuing training course that lead to a qualification. The employment agencies are now in a position to provide funding for this.
Speaking at a press conference, Federal Minister of Labour Andrea Nahles stated that one question that needed to be posed was whether it was the task of the Federal Employment Agency to impart this basic knowledge. She felt that in principle it was not, but that funding could be provided if it was necessary to facilitate a vocational qualification.
Those who overcome the initial hurdles and seek to obtain a qualification via the second chance route of continuing training will receive an incentive in the form of a training bonus of €1,000 and €1,500 respectively for successful completion of interim and final examinations.
Minister Nahles announced that the idea of the training bonus would be piloted in a project to take place in East Thuringia. The Federal Cabinet had formally adopted the bonus and further improvements in a draft continuing vocational training law.
Another new feature is that employees in small and medium-sized enterprises will receive grants for pursuing continuing training outside working hours. Funding was only previously available if employers had paid their workers during the continuing training. This meant that courses after work and at weekends could not be funded.
Employees will be transferred to an interim employment society if a company closes or is restructured. Low-skilled workers or older employees (aged over 45) will be funded if they are already undergoing continuing training under such arrangements. This assists with placement in new employment (job-to-job). The Employment Agency will fund the costs of the continuing training. The interim short-time allowance will continue to be paid.