Country Studies On The Financing Of Vocational Training With Particular Reference To Continuing Training For The Gainfully Employed

This report summarizes a study of the continuing training system for workers in Germany. It describes the instruments that have been developed in Germany for the organization and provision of continuing training, the groups of people concerned, and the costs involved. After defining continuing training and explaining its place within the overall system of vocational training in Chapter 1, the study considers four aspects in the following chapters. It begins by discussing the organization (the legal foundations and control mechanisms) of the employer-sponsored continuing training sector in Chapter 2. The main part of the study, summarized in Chapter 3, provides a quantitative overview of the whole continuing training sector and considers the availability and quality of data on this sector. The description of continuing training structures covers providers, objectives, contents, and participants. This is followed by a chapter on the cost and financing of continuing training. The final chapter considers a number of specific aspects and problems, such as the effects of demographic trends, problems relating to data collection, the integration of general and vocational continuing training, polarization tendencies throughout the system, and the measurement of efficiency in continuing training. The study includes 30 figures and 17 references. (KC)

There is growing interest worldwide in reforming national systems of financing technical and vocational education and training (TVET). Based on examples of countries and industries with innovative arrangements, this book covers many new practices, both successful and unsuccessful: public funding schemes, tax incentives and co-financing. It should be of particular interest to policy-makers wishing to make better decisions on funding TVET.

This study of vocational education in advanced industrial countries contributes to two different areas of debate. The first is the study of the diversity of institutional forms taken by modern capitalism. The second theme is that of vocational education and training in its own right.