Print version Recommend this page Press release
26/ 2004
Bonn, 22.07.2004
Who finances vocational education and training in Germany?
BIBB calculates the government's contribution to financing VET
The number of in-house training places offered by private companies in Germany has fallen steadily over the last 20 years. At the same time, public-sector spending (on the part of Germany's federal government, state governments and Federal Employment Agency) to finance initial and continuing vocational education and training has increased substantially. The public sector allocated some € 4.1 billion for vocational education and training in 1980. By 2002, this figure had grown to nearly € 10 billion - an overall increase of 143 percent. There has also been a noticeable shift in the balance between funding used to finance vocational schools and monies ear-marked for non-formal vocational training (to fund, for example, additional training places or to provide vocational training for disadvantaged youths). In 1980, vocational schools accounted for just under 85 percent of the total amount provided by the public sector. Expenditure allocated for non-formal vocational training ran € 638 million or just 15.6 percent of this total. The amount of funding provided for non-formal vocational training subsequently grew disproportionately in the years through 2002. As a result, 31.8 percent of the aggregate € 10 billion in funding went to non-formal vocational training (€ 3,167 million) while the share of public-sector funding ear-marked for the vocational school system shrank to 68 percent.
These figures are just some of the findings from the Study on Public-Sector Expenditure on Vocational Education and Training during the Period 1980 - 2002 conducted by Germany's Federal Institute for Vocational Training ("BIBB").
The study's analysis of available financial statistics 01 reveals the following:
- The share of public-sector spending to finance non-formal vocational training - based on the development of overall public spending - increased by a disproportionate 397 percent between 1980 and 2002. During this period spending by the former Federal Employment Services (which has since been renamed Federal Employment Agency) and the federal government saw above-average growth - 753 percent and 340 percent respectively.
- The enormous increase in spending on the part of the Federal Employment Services / Federal Employment Agency went primarily to funding vocational education and training for disadvantaged youths: This expenditure grew from € 1.3 million in 1980 to € 268.6 million in 1991 (former West Germany) to ultimately € 1,076 million in 2002 (for the entire federal territory of reunified Germany).
- Funding for government spending on non-formal vocational education and training in 1980 was generally evenly split between the federal government on the one hand and the state governments on the other. The federal government however hiked its funding considerably in the following years, with the result that its share of funding rose to 87 percent while the states' fell to 13 percent.
- During the 1980s, public-sector expenditure shrank in relation to the costs that private companies shouldered in connection with providing in-house vocational training. This scenario changed dramatically in the 1990s when this burden shifted more to the public sector.
The German-language report Der Beitrag der öffentlichen Hand zur Finanzierung beruflicher Bildung ("the government's contribution to financing vocational training") which was published by the Federal Institute for Vocational Training documents all the findings from this study. Taking a variety of perspectives, this brochure provides an overview of the development, scope and structure of public spending on vocational training. Besides examining the question of how the burden of training costs has shifted between the public sector and private companies in the years since the early 1980s the brochure also offers a comprehensive survey of the scope, structure and development of government spending on initial and continuing vocational training in the years 1997 through 2003.
The brochure Der Beitrag der öffentlichen Hand zur Finanzierung beruflicher Bildung by Klaus Berger can be ordered for € 9.90 from W. Bertelsmann Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Postfach 10 06 33, 33506 Bielefeld, Germany; Tel. + 49 521 - 9110 111, Fax: +49 521 - 9110 119, E-mail: service@wbv.de
Further information on various aspects of the financing of vocational education and training is available at the Federal Institute for Vocational Training's homepage at: http://www.bibb.de/de/wlk8219.htm
