Evaluation of the federal program „Bildungsprämie“ (BiP)

The aim of the evaluation was to investigate medium- and long-term effects of the German education program "Bildungsprämie". It was intended to make theoretically sound, evidence-based statements on the success of the program and thus to derive reliable recommendations for action. It had a focus on the following aspects:

• Analysis and assessment of the effectiveness of the federal program,
• Analysis and assessment of economic viability,
• Analysis and assessment of educational success,
• Identification of improvement potentials or fault controls in the process,
• Development of actions and control measures for the federal program

and on this basis the acquisition of insights into the long-term design of demand-oriented further training promotion programs.

The effects relate to the continuing education behavior and the continuing education and professional development attitude of the participants. In addition, the vocational and economic relevance of the subsidized further training as well as the achievement of the program (social compensation, mobilization, reduction of unequal education participation) were in the evaluation’s focus.

The findings are classified into the national and international research framework for the promotion of further training and the further training behavior, in particular for the employer, and comparisons with the effectiveness of other funding systems (e.g. tax incentives for further training). For the identification and assessment of the possibilities for improvement and the possibility of a sustained demand-oriented promotion of professional development, but also of the limits of effectiveness, it is essential to take into account the embedding in the whole social context and developments.

The participants in the Federal program are more likely to be female, young, better educated and often work part-time and in the health sector. Within the target Modafinilpill.com group, mainly better-educated individuals are reached.

The subjective satisfaction with the education premium is very high. Likewise, the participants state that they would not have been able to attend the training without the support, only later or only a qualitatively worse. In contrast, the counterfactual impact analysis shows a mixed picture. Possible effects of the education premium on further training or career goals are often explained by a positive selection of people who are interested in further education: The group of participants also took part in further education even before receiving the education bonus. The positive attitude of the participants to further education can therefore not be interpreted as the effect of the program. However, the education bonus encourages and supports the participants in their generally positive attitude to further education, especially to individual vocational training.

If one looks at costs of the programme, then it turns out that high fixed costs and increased administrative costs of the program make individual funding very expensive.

Final Report (in German)