The Training Cheque – a new Instrument for the Promotion of the Continuing Vocational Training in SMEs in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia

The Training Cheque – a new Instrument for the Promotion of the Continuing Vocational Training in SMEs in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia

(NRW). Scheme – Structure – Results

CEDEFOP, 31 January 2008, Thessaloniki, Greece

Folie 2G.I.B. Gesellschaft für innovative Beschäftigungsförderung mbH

The Training Cheque – a new Instrument for the Promotion of the Continuing Vocational Training in SMEs in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW)CEDEFOP, 31 January 2008, Thessaloniki, Greece

Claudia ThierfelderConsultantDepartment „Employability - Vocational Training“, G.I.B. mbH

G.I.B. (Organisation for Innovative Employment Promotion)

• G.I.B. is a Federal state counselling organisation (100% doughter of the Federal State of NRW)

• 60 experts work on the conceptional development, counselling, implementation and controlling of labour policy programms and projects

• G.I.B. takes the part of an interface between the federal state and the regions (16 regions in NRW), between programme providers and project implementers, between the state and the different actors working in the municipalities, providing organisations, companies and private labour market service providers

• G.I.B.´s key objective is the promotion of emloyment in North-Rhine Westphalia



Federal State of North-Rhine Westphalia

Some facts:

• 18 Milllion inhabitants ( highest population density in Germany)

• 8,6 Million employees (labour force)

• 723.000 SMEs (enterprises with a maximun of 250 employees)

• 70% of employees work in SMEs

• 776.030 unemployed person (unemployment rate of 8,6%, December 2007)


The Training Cheque – a new Instrument for the Promotion of the Continuing Vocational Training in SMEs in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia. CEDEFOP, 31 January 2008, Thessaloniki, Greece

Scheme

Reasons for the motivation for the „Training Cheque Programme“

1. Changed framework conditions in the economy and on the labour market

• The globalisation of the economy (enterprises have problems to preserve their competitiveness)

• The demographic development in Germany• The low birth rates in Germany (enterprises have problems finding young

employees)• The decrease of the participation of employed people for vocational training (from

42% in 1997 to 34% in 2003)• The low participation of people with migration background in courses for continuing

vocational training• The low investments from SMEs in vocational training for their employees (SMEs

invest much less in continuing vocational training than the larger enterprises)



Scheme

2. Political context

• The European Council in Lisbon phrased the strategic objective to make the European Union a competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economic environment in the world (March 2000)

• „Making a European Area of Lifelong Learning a Reality“, this concept has represented the central theme for the development of education and training policy in the member states of the European Union since 2001

• The key-area „Support of the Adaptability of Enterprises and Employees and Promotion of Lifelong Learning“ was created in the framework of the EU-Objective 2 of the promotion period 2007-2013

• One promotion instrument within this key area is the „Training Cheque“ which was already implemented at the beginning of 2006 in North Rhine-Westphalia by the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of the federal state of NRW


The Training Cheque – a new Instrument for the Promotion of the Continuing Vocational Training in SMEs in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).CEDEFOP, 31 January 2008, Thessaloniki, Greece

Structure

Structure of the „Training Cheque Programme“

1. Main Objectives

• Increasing the competitiveness of SMEs• Improving the employability of employees not used to continuing vocational training• Promotion of lifelong learning• Reducing continuing training disparities• Stimulation on in-company and private training investments• Development of an unbureaucratical Instrument to stimulate companies and employees

2. Method

• Offer enterprises and employees counselling and unbureaucratical financial support



Structure

3. Target groups

Two target groups that can receive training cheques:

• SMEs With a maximum of 250 employess 20 training cheques/year for the employees

and

• Individual employees Working in an enterprise with a maximum of 250 employees 2 training cheques/year



Structure

3.a Definition of the target groups

• SMEs Enterprises situated in NRW can use training cheques

The public service (federal institutions, federal state institutions and other public service organisations) cannot use training cheques

• Individual employees Wage earners, persons with short –time working contracts, unpaid family workers, workers with maternity leave, founder of a new business during the first five years can use the training cheque

Unemployed people, apprentices, students, employed

people working in public service organisations cannot use the training cheque



Structure

4. Funding

• 50 percent of the continuing vocational training fees, at a maximum of 500 Euros

5. Who can receive training cheques?

• All persons of the two target groups who did not participate in the previous year to continuing vocational training initiated by the enterprise



Structure

6. Training programms which are not eligible

• Driving licenses

• Workplace related adaptive qualifying measures which are not usable on the external labour market

• Training programms, which serve the recreation, entertainment, private housekeeping, sports or arts

• Training programms, which are generelly promoted by the state

• Studies to receive a highschool graduation



Structure

7. Organisational structure

• 220 consultation centres in NRW• 430 consultants in NRW

7.a Consultation centres

• Consultation centres were selected in the framework of the regionalised labour market policy in NRW (16 sub-regional labour market policy agencies in NRW)

• Consultation centres associated to various institutions:Volkshochschulen (adult education centre), regional agencies, chambers of industry and commerce, technology centres, church organisations, networks…



Structure

7.b Main activities of the consultation centres

• Clarify the training needs of SMEs and their employees (contact with the entrepreneur)

• Clarify the training needs of employees (contact with one employee)• Clarify the conditions for the financial support• Help with the selection of adaquate continuing vocational training offers and training

providers• Fill out the training cheques and the standardised questionnaires

The consultation centres receive money

• 40 Euros per consultation of an enterprise• 20 Euros per consultation of an individual employee

(The average duration of a company consultation or an individual consultation is about half an hour)



Structure

7.c Quality of the consultation centres

• The G.I.B. developed an operational guideline, which will be regularly updated

• Regular information and training meetings are held for the consultants (G.I.B.)

• Regular information about news with E-Mail (The Training Cheque Info) (G.I.B.)

• Internet-Platform, FAQ-lists, FAQ-databases, Flyer in several languages like Turkish or Russion

• Regular update of the actual database for each consultation centre, monthly (Controlling G.I.B.)

• Controlling via databases (to prevent malpractice) (G.I.B.)



Structure

8. Reimbursement (approval procedure)

1st step, consultation centre:Transfer of the filled in questionnaire and training cheque with all datas

like name, date of birth, address, target of vocational training and so on, via internet to the public reimbursement agencies (Bezirksregierung/Bewilligungsbehörde) during the consultation, online-procedure

www.esf.nrw.dePrinting the training cheques during the consultation

2nd step, enterprise or employee:Submitting the training cheque and additional documents like the short

guideline for training providers (2 pages) to the training provider, Pay the training fees minus the amount claimt (50% of training fees to a

maximum of 500 Euros)



Structure

8. Reimbursement (approval procedure)

3rd step, training provider:Checking the training cheques whether the person who submits the

cheque is identical with the person entered on the training cheque Submitting the training cheque to the reimbursement agency

(Bewilligungsbehörde)receiving the 50% of training fees from the reimbursement agency



Results

Results1.

440

2.21

0

1.39

1

1.69

7

1.65

8

1.62

8

3.90

0

3.87

4

3.98

3

4.37

3

2.98

5

6.93

5

6.26

8

6.77

6

5.22

3

6.49

8

3.98

1

4.05

1

7.21

6

5.77

6

270

0

1.000

2.000

3.000

4.000

5.000

6.000

7.000

8.000

Jan

06

Feb 0

6

Mrz

06

Apr 06

Mai

06

Jun 0

6

Jul 0

6

Aug 06

Sep 0

6

Okt 0

6

Nov 06

Dez 06

Jan

07

Feb 0

7

Mrz

07

Apr 07

Mai

07

Jun 0

7

Jul 0

7

Aug 07

Sep 0

7

An

zah

l d

urc

hg

efü

hrt

er B

erat

un

gen

pro

Mo

nat

-

10.000

20.000

30.000

40.000

50.000

60.000

70.000

80.000

90.000

Ku

mu

lier

te E

ntw

ickl

un

g d

er B

erat

un

gen

Kumulierte Entwicklung der Beratungen

Durchgeführte Beratungen pro Monat

Quelle: BISAM 2007/10 © G.I.B.

82.133Number of consultations accumulated

Number of consultations/month



Results

Results

3.16

6

5.00

7

3.47

5

4.17

1

3.59

7

3.17

5

7.01

7

7.58

2

8.02

1

9.40

6

6.34

1

15.0

80

13.4

11

14.2

46

11.7

88

16.5

10

5.97

1

6.07

4

11.3

39

9.37

2

402

-

20.000

40.000

60.000

80.000

100.000

120.000

140.000

160.000

180.000

Jan

06

Feb 0

6

Mrz

06

Apr 06

Mai

06

Jun 0

6

Jul 0

6

Aug 06

Sep 0

6

Okt 0

6

Nov 06

Dez 06

Jan

07

Feb 0

7

Mrz

07

Apr 07

Mai

07

Jun 0

7

Jul 0

7

Aug 07

Sep 0

7

Cu

mu

lati

ve n

um

ber

of

trai

nin

g c

heq

ues

iss

ued

(N

)

-

2.000

4.000

6.000

8.000

10.000

12.000

14.000

16.000

18.000

Tra

inin

g c

heq

ues

iss

ued

per

mo

nth

(N

)

Cumulative number of training cheques issued (N)

Training cheques issued per month (N)

Source: BISAM 2007/10 © G.I.B.

165.151



Results

Results14,0

10,1

25,4

18,7

13,7

11,0

7,1

14,8

12,4

15,2

22,7

17,3

11,8

5,8

12,9

6,9

39,8

13,0

8,6

9,7

9,0

0 10 20 30 40 50

Commercial professions

Industrial professions

Social and nursing professions

Overlapping topics

IT

Languages

Miscellaneous

Proportion of subjects of the issued training cheques in %

Overall

Company access

Individual access

Source: BISAM 2007/10 © G.I.B.



Results

bis 9 MA10 bis 49

MA50 bis 99

MA100 bis 250

MAHellweg-Hochsauerland 26,5 33,3 15,6 24,5Mittleres Ruhrgebiet, BO, HER, EN 38,7 33,6 11,5 16,3Westfälisches Ruhrgebiet, DO, UN, Hamm 35,1 38,0 13,4 13,4Märkische Region 30,1 34,6 15,0 20,2Siegen-Wittgenstein / Olpe 19,3 37,0 18,7 25,1OWL 26,1 36,1 16,4 21,4Bergisches Städtedreieck 28,5 38,0 15,3 18,2Mittlerer Niederrhein 24,8 42,3 16,7 16,2Düsseldorf / Kreis Mettmann 30,9 43,5 11,3 14,3MEO 24,1 35,5 10,4 30,0Niederrhein 30,5 41,2 10,2 18,1Aachen 32,2 34,7 12,8 20,2Bonn/Rhein-Sieg 26,7 35,4 16,6 21,3Köln 31,6 39,3 14,0 15,1Emscher-Lippe 36,1 34,5 12,1 17,2Münsterland 25,3 41,1 14,0 19,5NRW gesamt 28,8 37,7 14,1 19,5

Betriebsgrößenklassen (%)REGION

Results

SMEs1-9 employees

10-49 employees

50-99 employees

100-250 employees



Results

gesamt betrieblich individuell gesamt betrieblich individuellHellweg-Hochsauerland 37,6 46,9 29,1 62,4 53,1 70,9Mittleres Ruhrgebiet, BO, HER, EN 30,5 38,6 26,0 69,5 61,4 74,0Westfälisches Ruhrgebiet 40,9 52,9 31,6 59,1 47,1 68,4Märkische Region 41,0 59,7 27,8 59,0 40,3 72,2Siegen-Wittgenstein / Olpe 46,3 65,8 33,1 53,7 34,2 66,9OWL 42,5 58,2 30,6 57,5 41,8 69,4Bergisches Städtedreieck 36,5 48,9 28,1 63,5 51,1 71,9Mittlerer Niederrhein 39,9 56,6 29,6 60,1 43,4 70,4Düsseldorf / Kreis Mettmann 40,2 50,6 35,3 59,8 49,4 64,7MEO 37,9 53,4 28,0 62,1 46,6 72,0Niederrhein 39,9 55,8 32,0 60,1 44,2 68,0Aachen 39,0 49,7 31,0 61,0 50,3 69,0Bonn/Rhein-Sieg 38,3 51,9 30,0 61,7 48,1 70,0Köln 35,4 48,9 29,1 64,6 51,1 70,9Emscher-Lippe 37,3 49,3 29,5 62,7 50,7 70,5Münsterland 42,8 55,6 33,2 57,2 44,4 66,8NRW gesamt 39,3 52,9 30,5 60,7 47,1 69,5

Männer FrauenRegion

Geschlecht (%)

Results Gender, men and women



Results

gesamt betrieblich individuell gesamt betrieblich individuell gesamt betrieblich individuell gesamt betrieblich individuell7,5 8,1 7,0 80,3 77,9 82,4 12,2 14,0 10,6 3,5 2,1 4,65,8 7,5 4,9 81,8 75,2 85,2 12,4 17,3 9,9 2,9 3,1 2,86,2 6,9 5,7 81,8 79,6 83,3 12,1 13,5 11,0 3,4 2,2 4,27,2 7,0 7,3 79,8 77,6 81,2 13,0 15,4 11,5 5,7 4,0 6,79,1 10,8 8,0 77,3 75,1 78,8 13,5 14,0 13,2 2,8 2,9 2,76,5 8,2 5,4 81,9 78,5 84,2 11,6 13,4 10,4 2,5 2,2 2,75,5 6,9 4,7 81,2 76,5 84,1 13,2 16,7 11,2 5,5 5,1 5,85,9 7,4 5,0 81,9 79,7 83,3 12,2 12,9 11,7 6,8 3,4 8,77,4 8,4 7,0 82,3 77,4 84,3 10,3 14,2 8,7 5,6 3,9 6,35,2 6,5 4,5 82,1 79,6 83,5 12,7 13,9 12,0 3,5 2,6 4,07,7 6,5 8,2 80,2 80,7 79,9 12,2 12,7 11,9 7,0 4,9 7,96,2 6,6 5,9 80,9 79,3 82,1 12,8 14,1 11,9 5,4 6,0 5,16,7 10,3 4,6 82,0 76,1 85,5 11,3 13,7 9,9 4,4 5,2 4,05,3 8,5 4,0 84,2 77,7 87,1 10,4 13,9 8,9 4,2 4,6 4,17,3 9,5 6,0 80,7 75,5 83,8 12,0 15,0 10,2 2,3 3,3 1,78,2 9,3 7,4 81,6 78,0 84,2 10,2 12,7 8,5 1,8 1,7 1,96,6 8,0 5,8 81,7 78,0 83,9 11,7 13,9 10,4 4,0 3,4 4,4

Nationalität (%)nicht deutsch50 Jahre und älter25 bis unter 50 Jahre

Altersklassen (%)unter 25 Jahre

Results Age groups, 25 years, 25-50 y., 50 y. and older/ migration background (not German)



Results

Results

• Average financial support with the training cheque = 330 Euros

• Cashed-in cheques achieve a value of up to 70%

• 60,7% women who take part of the training cheque programme

• 4% people with migration background take part of the training cheque programme

• 81,7% of the people who take part of the programme are 25 until 50 years old

• 11,7% of the people are older than 50 years

• 37,7% of SMEs which take part of the programme have 10-49 employees

• 28,8% of SMEs which take part of the programme have 1-9 employees



Results Thank you for your attention.More information you can get from:

www.gib.nrw.dewww.bildungsscheck.nrw.de

www.mags.nrw.dewww.esf.nrw.de

Or from [email protected]

Documents

The Training Cheque – a new Instrument for the Promotion of the Continuing Vocational Training in SMEs in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia