Employment effects of the provision of specific professional skills and techniques in Germany

Abstract

A skills training programme had a beneficial impact on employment generation but an adverse lock-in effect after the start of the programme Intervention: The provision of specific professional skills and techniques (SPST) intended to improve the starting position for finding a new job by providing additional skills and specific professional knowledge in courses usually lasting between four weeks and one year. It involved freshening up specific skills or trainings on new operational methods. It mainly consisted of classroom training and the acquisition of professional knowledge by working experience, and participants mainly get a certificate. Implementing agency: The Germany Federal Employment Office Context/Population: The programme targeted unemployed persons or persons at risk of becoming unemployed Study design: The study used a non-experimental evaluation approach using propensity score matching estimators Study findings: There were significant positive treatment effects on employment rates of about 10 percentage points and above after one year of the programme, and a negative lock-in effect for the period after the beginning of the programme. The positive effects were disproportionately higher in West Germany compared to East Germany.