Public promotion of training in Eastern Germany under scrutiny
Results of current evaluation studies
Completely new structures were established in the area of vocational training in the new German Länder following reunification. Quantitative problems in the training position market resulting from demographic developments had to be overcome. The task has still not been completed as of the present day.
Additional training positions have to be created by applying considerable sums of public financial resources. This raises the question as to how successful individual programmes have been and what action needs to be taken.
The eastern German training market will also require government support in the years to come. If forecasts on trends in secondary school graduates in eastern Germany are accurate, there will be a high demand for training positions up until the middle of the decade. At the same time, a future shortage of skilled labour can be expected as a result of the decline in the birth rate at the beginning of the 90s and the age structure of staffs working at eastern German companies. Both the government and enterprises will have to come up with a response to this.
With this in mind, the government is planning to continue training programmes until the middle of the decade. The degree to which these programmes contribute to closing the training position gap is not the only factor which will determine their success. Other crucial variables include what quality of training they offer, the extent to which trainees find a job later, and whether government subsidisation raises the capacity and willingness of enterprises to establish training programmes.
Different studies evaluating promotional training programmes in eastern Germany have improved the transparency overall in the last few years while shedding light on the quality and efficacy as well as deficits and unintended effects of individual promotional programmes. Suggestions have also been made on how promotion can be further refined. In addition to the special Länder promotional activities and the fast-track youth programmes, the Federal Government-Länder training position programmes in eastern Germany play a crucial role in the promotion of training positions in eastern Germany. Independently of all this, the evaluation of the Federal Government-Länder promotion or the evaluation of individual Länder-specific programme components was commissioned at the beginning of the decade. Thus the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training submitted an evaluation report on the structure and effectiveness of the Federal Government-Länder training position programme for eastern Germany 1996-1999 upon the request of the Federal Ministry for Training and Research in October 2001. The Land of Brandenburg at the same time commissioned an evaluation of Brandenburg's cooperative model and thus the school components of the Federal Government-Länder programme in Brandenburg. A Land-specific component of the Federal Government-Länder promotion is also being evaluated along with shared training in Berlin.
Pursuant to the scholarly discussion on the respective evaluation results, the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training put on a colloquium on the topic of "Evaluating Training Programmes" in May 2002. The participants included evaluators of eastern German training programmes, people in charge of programmes at the responsible Federal Government and Länder ministries and representatives of the trade unions and employers' organisations. At the heart of the colloquium was first of all activities relating to the promotion of training in the new German Länder and current results of evaluations of their effectiveness. In addition, the future objectives of public promotion of training and the usefulness of program evaluations were discussed. Requirements applying to evaluation studies, user expectations of those persons who are in charge of programmes and the integration of programme results in the programme design also received attention. The special opportunity offered by the colloquium was that a scholarly exchange was made possible - not only between evaluators, but also between evaluators and those persons in charge of programmes -with the involvement of representatives of the social partners. The journal issue which has just been published contains the prepared presentations of the speakers and articles from the participants in the colloquium.
Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training
Research
Consulting
Planning the future
