Adult Vocational Training and Further Training - Austria

• Actors in the Field of Training
• AMS Qualification Schemes
  • Career Orientation Schemes
  • Vocational Preparation Schemes
  • On-the-job Work Experience
  • Training
  • Further Training
  • Active Jobsearch
  • Work Training
• Aid to Individuals
• Aid to Institutions
• Aid to Enterprises
• Promotion of Apprenticeship Training and Vocational Preparation

Adult vocational training and further training are not governed by any regulations under Austrian constitutional law which would establish them as a third pillar of education alongside schools and universities/higher-education institutes. The field is dominated by three large adult education bodies which are operated by the social partners - Industrial Institutes (Wirtschaftsförderungsinstitute - WIFI), Vocational Institutes (Berufsförderungsinstitute - BFI) and Rural Further Training Institutes (Ländliche Fortbildungsinstitute - LFI). However, the continuing need for further training as a basis for the maintenance and development of Austria's competitiveness on international markets has led to changes in the further training situation in recent years. An increasing number of private suppliers are expanding the ever better functioning further training market and are a source of competitive pressure for the public and social-partner bodies to improve the quality of their services. The following further vocational training sectors can be distinguished in Austria:

• second-chance schools governed by the Schools Organisation Act;
• qualification schemes commissioned by the AMS;
• educational services provided by the social partners' educational institutions;
• private suppliers;
• in-plant further training.

The programmes available in the second-chance schools are governed by federal laws and ordinances and are standardised and controlled by the state. They provide an opportunity for people to repeat final state examinations via second-chance education; the schools are authorised to award all final reports and certificates and the programmes are linked to certain vocational qualifications, such as the substitute final apprenticeship examination. Schools for the employed are usually run by the state or the Länder.

The most important non-school adult education bodies are the social partners' adult education institutions, the WIFIs under the chambers of commerce, the BFIs under the workers' chambers and the Austrian Trade Union Federation, and the LFIs under the agricultural chambers. The educational courses provided are agreed on by the social partners in accordance with the needs of the members they represent.

Private suppliers are represented in all areas of further training, however they are particularly manifest in the fields of data-processing, information, communication and organisation.

The great advantage of in-plant further training is that specialised and immediately applicable training courses are provided. The training received can be practised in daily working life in the company and also usually entails the possibility of promotion. More than four out of five enterprises and practically all enterprises with over 100 employees combine in-plant and external further training.

The Austrian employment service does not operate any training establishments itself; within the framework of promoting training for the labour market under the terms of the AMS Act, it engages the services of existing further training bodies. Participation in further vocational training schemes provided by adult education institutions may be financially supported following investigation by the regional offices of the AMS of the usefulness of the training from a labour market policy point of view.

The AMS devises vocational training and further training schemes for certain disadvantaged groups in order to supplement the range of further training available on the education market and commissions adult education bodies to operate these schemes.

Career Orientation Schemes

These schemes of the Employment Service (AMS) offer comprehensive support prior to training or jobsearch to persons finding it difficult to determine their career possibilities. They consist of the following elements: self-classification and goal orientation and analysis of personal situation and assessment of previous occupational experience; career prospects, interests and desires; research on wishes and interests, including possibilities for periods of work experience; decision-making and definition of further steps. The overall aim is a concrete, realisable career plan.

Vocational Preparation Schemes

In addition to practical familiarisation with various occupational areas within the sheltered framework of institutional workshops and/or enterprises, vocational preparation schemes offer first-time entrants to the labour market an opportunity to deal with personal and social problems. In addition to practical preparation for an occupation, and depending on the goals pursued and the target groups involved, the following services are made available: various types of individual and group counselling, catching up on educational gaps, German language courses, job-application training, vocational supervision, etc. Vocational preparation schemes tailored specifically to the needs of girls allow give the girls time to discover their own technical/craft-related interests. The aim is personal and social stability as a prerequisite for entering employment, an apprenticeship or a training scheme.

On-the-job Work Experience

The aim of on-the-job work experience is to offer persons who have finished school or higher education or those participating in career orientation schemes an opportunity to familiarise themselves with a particular job and to gain experience in an enterprise. The enterprises in turn are given the opportunity to get to know potential employees.

Training

Training schemes provide vocational knowledge and skills leading to a recognised school-leaving or vocational certificate (e.g. an apprenticeship certificate). The contents of training are laid down by law or ordinance and the final examinations are usually taken before an external authority. The aim is for participants to complete the respective training course and to find work.

Further Training

Further training schemes provide either entry-level vocational qualifications, which enable entry into employment, or additional vocational qualifications, which are understood as being supplementary to initial training. The aim is the acquisition of concrete skills and entry into or safeguarding of employment.

Active Jobsearch

Active jobsearch schemes provide skills which are directly related to the search for work: application strategies, composition of applications and curricula, self-marketing, analysis of job advertisements, etc. The aim is for participants to find work and to rapidly enter employment.

Work Training

Social problems are dealt with within the framework of specially designed work-training schemes with a view to ameliorating the consequences of long-term unemployment or psychological or physical impediments and to promoting the development of certain types of work behaviour (stamina, punctuality, etc.). At least 50% of work training time is spent on productive work. The aim is psychological and physical stability and entry into a subsequent qualification scheme or employment.

Schemes for unemployed participants often consist of a combination of career orientation and further training modules, on-the-job work experience and active jobsearch elements.

The participants in the schemes consist in particular of unemployed persons without or with obsolete qualifications, disabled persons, persons returning to the labour market, and young people and especially girls who are finding it difficult to enter the labour market. Training of persons in employment is supported financially under ESF Objectives 1, 2, 5b and 4 with a view to safeguarding existing jobs.

Unemployed participants in the schemes receive unemployment benefit for up to three months. Longer-term participants receive a subsistence allowance (DLU) and are reimbursed for course fees and other course-related expenses.

Participants in school or university courses may draw benefits from unemployment insurance only under certain circumstances (e.g. members of employment foundations or persons on training leave under the AlVG).

Subsistence allowance and allowance towards course fees and other course-related expenses aim at:

• securing the livelihood of persons in vocational training schemes or on-the-job work experience;
• safeguarding endangered jobs.

The following allowances are available for persons participating in training or further training schemes, vocational guidance courses, active groups and on-the-job training schemes (work experience):

• Subsistence allowance (Beihilfe zur Deckung des Lebensunterhalts - DLU) to secure the livelihood of participants for the duration of the scheme. The benefit also entails health, accident, pension and unemployment insurance. Recipients may thus acquire entitlement to unemployment benefit if the scheme is of sufficient duration.
• Allowance towards course fees to cover expenditure arising from participation in a scheme (e.g. course fees for courses which are not commissioned by the AMS).
• An allowance towards other course-related expenses is granted to persons participating in schemes taking place at some distance from their place of residence.

Aid to individuals is financed from labour market policy funds (employer and employee contributions to unemployment insurance, federal contribution, ESF).

The aim is to ensure the provision of training and further training to the unemployed.

The further training establishments and training centres operated by the social partners are among the institutions which are most frequently commissioned by the AMS to carry out labour market training schemes. The social partners also operate their own training centres for the vocational rehabilitation of disabled persons (vocational training and rehabilitation centres). The AMS also commissions numerous other educational institutions to carry out vocational training, retraining and further training schemes.

The institutions receive subsidies which reimburse up to 100% of expenditure linked to training courses (training personnel, material costs). The AMS also cofinances building and installation costs for the social partners' training centres.

Aid to institutions is financed from labour market policy funds (employer and employee contributions to unemployment insurance, federal contribution, ESF).

Duration of the aid depends on the respective training or further training scheme; intensive training for skilled workers, for example, has a duration of approximately one year.

Aid to Enterprises

The aim is to

• create training and further training opportunities for the unemployed;
• safeguard endangered jobs;
• support structural change.

In addition to educational institutions, enterprises may also be commissioned to carry out vocational training and further training schemes. The condition for such schemes is that the qualifications acquired may not only be put to use in the training company.

In-plant training schemes are also financed by the AMS in order, for example, to contribute to safeguarding existing employment within the framework of the early warning system.

In ESF Objectives 1, 2, 5b and 4, in particular, training of persons in employment has become an important instrument for safeguarding existing jobs and for supporting structural change. Special conditions for support apply in the case of in-plant training in connection with job-rotation projects and innovative models seeking to improve inter-plant systems of training and further training and training alliances.

The amount of aid provided depends on the degree of interest the company has in training employees, but is usually a subsidy equal to 50% of total costs. If a scheme is carried out purely in the interests of the AMS, up to 100% of arising costs may be reimbursed.

A subsidy may be paid towards the wage or salary costs of employees participating in training schemes designed to secure their jobs, to support structural change or to develop innovative models seeking to improve systems of training and further training. In addition, personnel development and evaluation costs may be financed.

Aid to enterprises is financed from labour market policy funds (employer and employee contributions to unemployment insurance, federal contribution, ESF).

Duration of the aid depends on the qualification pursued.

The aim is to:

• provide vocational training for particular categories;
• ensure high-quality apprenticeship training;
• secure trainee places for apprentices.

Enterprises and institutions receive grants if, within the framework of apprenticeship training, they employ and train:

• young people who are disadvantaged on the labour market (young people with a physical, psychological or mental disability, young people with social problems, graduates of special schools, young people who have failed to complete an apprenticeship, etc.);
• girls in occupations where women are under-represented (less than 45%);
• unemployed adults without or with an obsolete qualification.

In order to improve the quality of apprenticeship training and to promote the dissemination of skills and knowledge in a range of specialised fields, the AMS provides financial aid to institutions and companies which supply those elements of training which the training company itself is unable to provide (so-called inter-plant additional training).

Companies and institutions which carry out general or specific vocational preparation schemes also receive financial aid (e.g. in order to provide young people with an insight into the demands of the occupation they wish to pursue or to prepare them for a specific vocation).

• Aid towards apprenticeship training consists of a partial reimbursement of the trainees' remuneration.
• The subsidy towards inter-plant additional training covers around 50% of the costs incurred.
• Subsidies for vocational preparation schemes amount to up to 100% of arising personnel and material costs.
• The aid is financed from labour market policy funds (employer and employee contributions to unemployment insurance, federal contribution, ESF).
• Grants are payable for the duration of the respective scheme (duration of apprenticeship training or vocational preparation).
• Inter-plant additional training for apprentices was first introduced in 1992; the trainees funded under this scheme are included in column 1 (funding of apprenticeship training).

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