Institute for Education and Socio-Economic Research and Consulting (FiBS)

Reinhardtstr. 31
D-10117  Berlin
Germany

Tel: +49 (0) 30-84 71 22 3-10
Fax: +49 (0) 30-84 71 22 3-29
Email: D.Dohmen(zavinac)fibs.eu

Professional career:

Dieter Dohmen is Director of the Institute for Education and Socio-Economic Research & Consulting in Berlin (FiBS – Forschungsinstitut für Bildungs- und Sozialökonomie); he founded this private research and consulting institute in 1993. He is education economist and his major areas are education financing and management, demographic change and international comparative research. He studied economics at the University of Cologne and graduated in 1991 and completed his PhD-thesis in economics of education at the Technical University of Berlin in 1998.

At present he is responsible for the development of a funding scheme for further training  on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. In 2002, FiBS conducted a conference on “Financing Further Education and Lifelong Learning”.

As former member of the EU-task force “Making the best use of resources”, perennial convenor and active member of the European network Economics of Education within the scope of the European Educational Research Association (EERA), initiator of the network CESERC (Cooperation of Education and Socio-Economic Researchers and Consultants) as well as consultant for educational and social economic concerns for national and international clients he has intensive contacts to research institutes worldwide.

Summary of the presentation:

Presentation is available at www.nvf.cz

Financing Further Training – Models and Experiences: An Overview

The paper will introduce and discuss different models for the financing of further training as well as present the international experience and evidence with them.

The first section will briefly summarise the foundations for the subsequent economic discussion  of the effects of different models. In the following sections the paper will present an overview about the underlying assumptions and the empirical experiences with different models for financing further training, such as fees for individuals and/or companies on the one hand and public modalities, e.g. through tax exemptions, vouchers, individual learning accounts, “real” saving accounts, and loans etc. on the other hand. In addition, many countries apply training funds or levies, for financing company-related training, and, often, to redistribute funds between companies that invest more  in training and those who do less. This section will present the principles, effects as well as the differences and similarities among such models. Finally, the paper will summarise the advantages and disadvantages of the models.