Finanzierung

Labor economists argue that private investment in the training of workers may be too low. This view is based on the notion of worker skills being a common-pool resource available in principle to any employer. Such under-investment ought to be more pronounced the less difficult it is for outside firms to exploit the skills of workers qualified elsewhere. Thus, higher labor turnover may be expected to reduce firms’ commitment to developing worker qualifications; investment in general skills should be affected more strongly than investment in specific skills. However, analyses of the BIBB-FluCT data that were collected in 2011 among firms in Germany, do not provide unreserved support for these hypotheses.

This contribution describes an approach for the assessment of the total expenditure for adult and continuing education and training (ACET) in Austria, broken down by public and private sources of financing. Variants of estimates of the expenditure are presented. Direct expenditure has been at 0.7% and the sum of direct and indirect expenditure at 1.2% of GDP in 2009. The largest share is born by the enterprises (40%), followed by the public (30-34%), and the individuals slightly below 30%. Among the public expenditure the share of labour market policy is high, with a rising tendency.

There are voices at the political level, which call for a relocating of finances into sections of early education. This article demonstrates the high relevance of public stimuli in opposition to such claims. Therefore, results of the Brandenburg-Study will be presented, in which the usage of continuous training vouchers have been quantitatively and qualitatively researched. It will be demonstrated how in specific vocational and private phases within the lives of women in health and social sectors an increased need arises for continuing training and financing.