The Training Cheque a new Instrument for the Promotion of the Continuing Vocational Training in SMEs

1
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
ResultsCEDEFOP, 31 January 2008, Thessaloniki,
Greece
2
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 Thierfelder
• Consultant
• Department 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

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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

• 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)

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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, GreeceScheme

• Reasons for the motivation for the Training
  Cheque Programme
• 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)

5
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, GreeceScheme

• 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

6
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
• Method
• Offer enterprises and employees counselling and
  unbureaucratical financial support

7
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

• 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

8
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

• 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

9
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

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

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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

• 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

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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

• 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

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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

• 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)

G.I.B. Gesellschaft für innovative
Beschäftigungsförderung mbH
13
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

• 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.)

G.I.B. Gesellschaft für innovative
Beschäftigungsförderung mbH
14
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

• 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/Bewillig
  ungsbehörde) during the consultation,
  online-procedure
• www.esf.nrw.de
• Printing 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)

G.I.B. Gesellschaft für innovative
Beschäftigungsförderung mbH
15
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

• 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

G.I.B. Gesellschaft für innovative
Beschäftigungsförderung mbH
16
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 Results

• Results

Number of consultations accumulated Number of
consultations/month
G.I.B. Gesellschaft für innovative
Beschäftigungsförderung mbH
17
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 Results

• Results

G.I.B. Gesellschaft für innovative
Beschäftigungsförderung mbH
18
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 Results

• Results

G.I.B. Gesellschaft für innovative
Beschäftigungsförderung mbH
19
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 Results
Results
SMEs 1-9 employees 10-49 employees 50-99
employees 100-250 employees
G.I.B. Gesellschaft für innovative
Beschäftigungsförderung mbH
20
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 Results
Results
Gender, men and women
G.I.B. Gesellschaft für innovative
Beschäftigungsförderung mbH
21
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 Results
Results
Age groups, 25 years, 25-50 y., 50 y. and older/
migration background (not German)
G.I.B. Gesellschaft für innovative
Beschäftigungsförderung mbH
22
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 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

G.I.B. Gesellschaft für innovative
Beschäftigungsförderung mbH
23
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 Results

• Thank you for your attention.
• More information you can get from
• www.gib.nrw.de
• www.bildungsscheck.nrw.de
• www.mags.nrw.de
• www.esf.nrw.de
• Or from me
• c.thierfelder_at_gib.nrw.de

G.I.B. Gesellschaft für innovative
Beschäftigungsförderung mbH