Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung (BIBB)

Private persons assume high degree of responsibility for their continuing vocational education and training

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Life-long learning is considered to be of key importance when it comes to coping with technical, economic, demographic and societal change. Continuing vocational education and training constitutes a fundamental aspect of life-long learning.

In Germany, continuing vocational training is financed by individual companies, government, the Federal Employment Agency and private persons. For some time now, calls for the individual to assume greater responsibility - which often is another way of saying assume a larger portion of the costs - have been directed to nearly all spheres of life. Such calls do not make exceptions for the continuing education and training field. Of interest in this connection is the extent to which private persons currently participate in continuing vocational education and training (CVET), the degree to which they are already assuming the costs of CVET and the benefits they draw from it. Germany's Federal Institute for Vocational Training ("BIBB") examined these questions in its Cost and Benefits of Continuing Vocational Training for the Individual research project from which it has now released the first important findings. The project involved close cooperation with the Commission on Financing Lifelong Learning. This independent panel of experts was set up by the German government in 2001 by order of the Bundestag. It will be releasing its final report shortly. The Commission's job was to develop new strategies for financing lifelong learning which should to lead to financing concepts that can be translated into practice. The proposals are to take into account economic and societal changes that are to be expected and, secondly, increase the individual's prospects - particularly those groups of individuals who are disadvantaged or hard to reach - of taking part in education and training. The Commission considered it necessary to investigate more closely the reasons and motives for non-participation in continuing vocational education and training. Since the Commission was examining issues that were similar to those underlying the BIBB project - issues involving the conditions influencing the individual's decisions and how the benefits of continuing vocational education and training are assessed - the Commission and BIBB agreed to work closely together. The two 'partners' conducted joint representative surveys of persons who participate in CVET and those who do not.

BIBB and the Commission came to the following key findings regarding participation in continuing vocational education and training:

Extent of participation in continuing vocational education and training: In 2002, 68 percent of all German-speaking, "employment-oriented" persons between the ages of 19 and 64 participated in continuing vocational education and training. This group comprised gainfully employed persons, unemployed persons, persons who are seeking employment and persons who are planning to be gainfully employed soon. A representative sample of 5,058 persons was interviewed in this survey. Thirty-nine percent of the respondents had attended CVET courses, particularly in their own company or at continuing education facilities - in other words, participated in "conventional" formalized continuing vocational education and training. More than one out of every four respondents (26 percent) attended conventions, conferences or trade fairs to educate themselves further. Another 23 percent of the employment-oriented individuals surveyed continued their education in self-organized learning processes, primarily with the help of textbooks or specialized literature, but also on a computer-supported basis with learning software or via the Internet. Seventeen percent had taken advantage of work-related forms of learning, in particular organized familiarization or instruction at work or in-company skilling activities. Many of the respondents had participated in several different CVET courses. This averaged out to 1.4 CVET courses per respondent. Thirty-two percent of the employment-oriented persons surveyed had not participated in any form of continuing vocational education or training.

Differences in CVET participation: Participation in continuing education and training exhibits marked differences between categories of persons: Men participate more often than women in continuing vocational education and training, persons who have completed Gymnasium (upper secondary school) participate more often than those who have completed only secondary modern school, persons with a university degree more often than persons with no formal vocational qualification, gainfully employed persons more often than persons who are not gainfully employed, and self-employed persons more often than workers. Based on this, gender, education and training levels, employment status and occupational status have a significant influence on the continuing education behaviour of employment-oriented persons. An age effect is not discernible. In other words, older persons participated just as much as young people in continuing vocational education and training as long as they are still gainfully employed or still planning to take up employment.

Looking at the costs of continuing vocational education and training for the individual, BIBB has ascertained the following:

• Level of costs: The cost burden from continuing vocational education and training averages €502 per participant and year. This figure is based on a representative survey of 2,000 persons who participate in CVET. This sample included employment-oriented, German-speaking persons between the ages of 19 and 64.
  
• Extrapolation: The total costs borne by private persons for continuing vocational education and training in Germany in 2002 can be estimated using this average. Based on this, the 27.78 million persons who participated in CVET that year spent a total of €13.9 billion on their own continuing education.
  
• Cost structure: The direct cost of continuing vocational education and training per individual totals an average of €375. These costs can be broken down as follows: Attendance fees comprise €116, the costs for computer-aided learning €67, and conventional teaching aids and materials €57. Some €75 in travelling expenses were incurred, €28 for overnight accommodations and €19 for meals away from home. In addition, miscellaneous costs (such as examination fees) totalled €14. Any reimbursements of costs that participants could take advantage of have already been deducted from these amounts. Beyond this, a CVET course frequently means a loss of income for participants when, for example, participants take unpaid leave in order to attend the particular course, the course means a reduction in the individual's regular working hours or the individual has to quit working entirely for a time in order to undergo CVET. This loss of income - which is considered an indirect cost - averages €127 per participant. These figures also take any possible reimbursements into account. Direct and indirect costs together constitute the cost burden for participants.
  
• Distribution of costs: The cost burden however varies greatly between participants. Forty-five percent of the respondents did not have to bear any type of cost for their CVET. At up to €99, the costs for 14 percent of the respondents were relatively small. Twenty-eight percent of the participants had noticeable costs ranging from €100 to €999. Thirteen percent had high costs of at least €1,000 to bear, with two percent reporting extremely high costs of €5,000 or more.
  
• Time investment: The survey's respondents spent an average of 138 hours a year on continuing vocational education and training. More than half of the hours spent on CVET (74 hours) did not take place during regular working hours but rather during the participants' leisure time. Any time off that the individual's company may have granted the individual to compensate for this has been taken into account here. Additionally, participants spent an average of another 59 leisure-time hours attributable to unpaid overtime arising from the individual's participation in CVET, advance information gathering, preparation and follow-up time plus travelling time. All in all, continuing vocational education and training results in a loss of 133 hours of leisure time per participant and year. The leisure time invested in CVET is also to be viewed as an indirect CVET cost. The study did not however place a monetary value on these hours nor did it include them in the costs.
  
• Cost differences: The cost of continuing vocational education and training varies to a relatively large degree, depending not only on gender, level of education, employment status, and occupational status but also on the participant's age. On the one hand, noticeable differences can be observed in the share of persons who did not have to bear any costs for their CVET: Persons under the age of 25, persons who have completed secondary modern school, persons who have completed in-house vocational training and persons who have not completed any form of formal vocational training, wage earners and salaried employees receive their training at no cost in a relatively large number of cases. On the other hand, looking at persons who assume the cost of their CVET, the level of these costs can vary greatly. Men, persons between the age of 25 and 35 and those who are 55 or older, persons who have earned qualification for university admission, university graduates and self-employed persons have comparatively high costs.

BIBB came to the following preliminary findings with regard to CVET's benefits for the individual:    

• All in all, the respondents' overall evaluation of the benefits of all CVET activities which they attended in 2002 produced a very positive assessment. An 11-point scale was used for the evaluation. Seventy-seven percent of the participants considered the benefits to themselves to be great, with 15 percent ranking the benefits they received at the top of the scale. Nineteen percent of the participants ranked the personal benefits in mid-field. Only four percent said that their CVET had little benefit. Here, one percent of the respondents did not feel that they gained any benefits at all from the CVET they received.
  
• An evaluation of the different types of benefits offered by CVET shows that 'substantial benefits for the individual's own personal development' was the most frequently cited type of benefit - reported by 69 percent of the respondents. Respondents quite frequently reported that CVET had a positive impact on their own vocational abilities (67 percent) and on their adjustment to new job requirements (62 percent). By contrast, respondents associated better career prospects (31 percent) and greater earning potential (28 percent) least often with continuing vocational education and training.

Based on these findings regarding participation in continuing vocational education and training and regarding the costs and benefits of CVET, it can be said as a first preliminary summary that private individuals already assume a large degree of responsibility for their continuing vocational education and training and, in some cases, invest large amounts of time and money in CVET. Besides sizable differences in CVET participation based on gender, education level, employment status and occupational status, considerable differences also exist in the cost of CVET for the individual. Here it is quite evident that the individual's willingness to invest in their own continuing vocational education and training increases with their level of education. Part of the reason for this is surely the fact that individuals have different degrees of motivation to learn on a continual basis and different expectations of the benefits they will receive from CVET. On the other hand, the individual's own personal financial leeway probably also plays a decisive role. Targeted, effective supporting measures will be absolutely necessary if Germany is to ensure that all groups participate in continuing vocational education and training and that marginalization be avoided. 


Authors: Ursula Beicht, Dr. Elisabeth M. Krekel, Dr. Günter Walden,
Department 2: Sociological and Economic Principles of Vocational Education and Training

German-language publications from the BIBB project:

• Ursula Beicht, Elisabeth M. Krekel, Günter Walden:
  Berufliche Weiterbildung - welche Kosten tragen die Teilnehmer? In: BWP - Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis, issue No. 2/2004, pp. 39-43 (€7.90)
• Ursula Beicht, Stefan Schiel, Dieter Timmermann:
  Berufliche Weiterbildung - wie unterscheiden sich Teilnehmer und Nicht-Teilnehmer? In: BWP - Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis, issue No. 1/2004, pp. 5-10 (€7.90)
  

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