Individual Funding by German Länder

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Many Federal States (Länder) in Germany became important providers for cost-sharing schemes in the ESF funding period from 2007 to 2013, where ESF and national funds are used for providing various types of vouchers for further education. Instruments targeted partly only individuals, partly only enterprises, yet, partly both individuals and enterprises. Co-funding schemes are continued under the new ESF funding period (2014-2020), however, schemes are adapted on the one hand to introduced federal funding schemes, on the other hand to reduced available ESF funds for further education (estimated to be EUR 300 to EUR 400 million per year across all Federal States). The voucher in North Rhine-Westphalia, providing training vouchers for individuals and employees is by far (with EUR 9 Million funding in 2012) the largest program of the 16 German countries. Examples for countries with voucher schemes for or also open for individuals include Schleswig-Holstein, Hessen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hamburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Bremen. Beyond voucher schemes, the Federal States may provide co-funding for further education and training as part of other initiatives, for example, in the field of innovation policies. An overview on all cost-sharing schemes is available in a database (http://www.foerderdatenbank.de). There is no recent overview on funding volumes and beneficiaries. For 2012, it has been estimated, that approximately 40 000 individuals benefits from a voucher by the Federal States.