European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
Eurofound's ERM database on restructuring-related legal regulations provides information on regulations in the Member States of the European Union and Norway which are explicitly or implicitly linked to anticipating and managing change.
Qualification opportunities act 1, § 96-98 Act on promoting further training during in a time of structural change, whole act
Under the Works constitution act, both the employer and the works council should promote vocational training and occupational education of employees, in cooperation with the authorities responsible for training and training support. They are, however, not obliged to do so.
On request of the works council, the employer has to investigate the training demand among employees and discuss questions regarding training. The employer and the works council have to consider enabling workers to participate in training, taking into account the company related requirements. The specific needs of older employees, part-time employees and employees with family obligations ought to be considered.
The qualification opportunities act was adopted in December 2018 and entered into force in 2019. The act expanded the subsidies provided by the Federal Employment Agency to train employees whose employment activities can be replaced by technologies, that are otherwise affected by structural change, or seek further vocational training in a bottleneck job. Before the reform, the training was reserved to unqualified workers, older workers in SMEs, and workers at risk of unemployment.
The qualification opportunities act changes the support lines in Social code III. Employees and employers are entitled to guidance for qualification and training measures (Art. 29) and can receive subsidies for training measures (Art. 82) through the Federal Employment Agency. A number of conditions will apply for qualifying to the training (e.g.): Knowledge and skills must go beyond job-related, short-term adaptation training; professional qualification must date back at least four years; duration of the training must be at least 160 hours and training must not be provided by the employer.
In May 2020, the act on promoting further training during in a time of structural change took effect. It eases regulations for the Federal Employment Agency to support employers and workers in their training efforts. Amongst other things, the new rules foresee that local employment agencies can increase subsidies for course costs and wages if at least every fifth employee in the company needs training. Small- and medium-sized companies (defined as those with fewer than 250 employees) can receive higher subsidies even if only ten per cent of their employees undergo continuous training. As before, the training course must meet certain standards but its minimum duration was lowered from 160 to 120 hours. Due to this reduction, employees can choose from a greater number of courses to meet their needs.
According to the Federation Institute for Vocational Training and Education ('Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung', BIBB), the latest results of the fourth European Continuing Vocational Training Survey (CVTS4-Z) indicate only a mediocre training provision in German establishments (Moraal, 2015). About 20-25% of the training provided is mandatory and focuses on occupational safety and health. As indicated by the Adult Education Survey data, most training is targeting skilled workers and managerial staff. Provisions for low and unskilled workers are comparatively rare (Behringser and Schönfeld, 2014).
The CVTS4-Z data indicate also that the works council plays a positive role in the provision of further training and that further training is best institutionalised if work agreements on training or joint training committees are in place. In more than 70% of large manufacturing companies, joint further training committees composed of HR staff and works council members exist. However, these committees remain rare in the service sectors.
Latest research shows that around half of all establishments had provided continuous training between 2011 and 2019 (Bennewitz, 2022). However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, numbers dropped significantly between 2019 and 2020. Bennewitz et al. (2022) show that due to the contact restrictions, years 2019 and 2020), the share of companies offering continuous training dropped by 20.7 percentage points.
Eurofound (2015), Germany: Employers obligation to provide skill development plans or training, Restructuring legislation database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/legislationdb/employers-obligation-to-provide-skill-development-plans-or-training/germany
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