Developing a skilled workforce is one of the European employment policy guidelines and part of the Europe 2020 Strategy. The demographic change and the ageing of the workforce could create a shortage of skilled workers in the near future. For some sectors this has already been a reality. The promotion of lifelong learning is at the heart of EU education and employment policy.

The EU Communication “New Skills for new jobs” highlights the need to update, upgrade and widening the skills of people’s skill portfolio to create and fill the jobs of tomorrow. Yet, one third of Europe’s workforce aged between 25-64 years has no or a low qualification level. In order to compete in the future, Europe has to invest in skills to produce innovative and high quality products. Member States are encouraged to promote innovative policies to engage in particular lower skilled adults who are less likely to benefit from training.

Despite the economic crisis the German labour market remains strong. The unemployment rate has decreased and the employment rates showed an upward trend in recent years.

The German labour market is characterised by a high demand of skilled workers, particularly in technical fields and in the IT sector, and by a strong mismatch between supply and demand as unemployed people have often a skills profile inadequate to respond the labour market needs. Particularly affected by this phenomenon are older and low-skilled workers. In 2012 the unemployed rate of older workers was 8.2%, this group accounted for 6.8% of all unemployed people; and, the unemployment rate amongst people without a vocational training qualification was particularly high, around 20%.

Vocational training is a promising way forward to cover the enterprises’ need for skilled labour.

The main objective of the policy was to address the existing lack and future possible shortage of qualified workers. Innovation is an important factor for growth and a high skilled workforce is an indicator for future innovative developments. In Germany the workforce is ageing and future labour and skill shortages are predicted. Training and further qualification for lower skilled and workers of SMEs (with less than 250 employees) were at the heart of the measure.

Compared to the European average, Germany has a relatively low rate of participation in lifelong learning among the workforce and in particular unskilled and older workers are less likely to benefit from training. WeGebAU was therefore aimed at providing training for these target groups to increase their employability.

Target groups eligible for funding

• Low-skilled employees (regardless the size of company and their age)
• Employees in SMEs

Support and services available

• Employees to cover the costs of training (partially or entirely) and other costs (e.g. travel costs or fees)
• Workers of SMEs below the age of 45, can only be funded if the company finances at least 50 % of the course costs
• Business can receive reimbursements for wages and social insurance costs for training related absences of the funded low skilled worker

Kind of training funded

• For low-skilled workers: further education leading to a professional qualification or at least a partial vocational qualification
• For employees in SMEs: training that takes place outside the workplace and that promotes skills that are relevant in a general labour market context.

Only courses of certified training organizations are eligible.

The measure has reached a significant number of individuals since its inception and has shown itself to be flexible and suitable to be used in times of economic crisis more extensively. Lower skilled persons could benefit most from the measure. Most of the companies that used the measure found it highly positive. Mostly SMEs were reached whereas micro companies were less represented among beneficiaries than expected, as many were not aware of the measure.

Monitoring data on WeGebAU since 2007