Nine out of ten employers think that further professional training is “important” or “very important”. This is the finding of a survey by the forsa polling firm which was carried out in August this year on behalf of the Federal Employment Agency (BA). 1000 personnel managers representing companies employing at least 10 people were interviewed in the course of this survey. 79% of interviewees hold the opinion that further training of less skilled people is important as well. So far, however, only 35% of companies provide the respective training opportunities for this group of employees.
In order to make employers and businesses more aware of the advantages of further training, the BA has recently launched a nationwide campaign with the motto “Weiter durch Bildung” which is to convince employers about the fact that investment in further professional training pays off. To this end, several events on this topic will be taking place all around Germany. This campaign is sponsored with in total five million Euros by the BA.
“Further training provides advantages to both employees and employers: employees receive additional qualifications and career opportunities while companies become more competitive. We would like to see more employers and employees making use of such opportunities”, says Mr Raimund Becker who is member of the executive board of the BA. In particular unskilled employees and those aged over 45 years could benefit a lot from further training, in the opinion of Mr Becker.
The forsa survey also showed that 90% of those interviewed would welcome more initiative on the part of employees with regard to further training. Employers said that they would support their employees in this respect. Many bosses would like their employees to come up with concrete qualification objectives and proposals. 