Supra-company apprenticeship (safety net of dual apprenticeship)

1 year (UBA 2) or 2-4 years (UBA 1)

Type: allowance paid by the State, fixed amount per month
Remuneration setting: centrally
Coverage: on- and off-the job training
Variation: by apprenticeship year

Average regulated remuneration: EUR 557 per month
Estimate: calculation is based on the most prominent trades; all years of apprenticeship divided by 4.
Level in PPS per month (average): 525,47; per year (average): 7,356.60
Level in PPS per hour (average): 4.64
Share of national minimum wage: nap
Share of the average salary of worker: in the last year of apprenticeship, 50% of a skilled worker wage in the same occupation (estimate)

Remuneration (annual gross income) in 3 selected occupations (EUR):
hairdresser: 1st year: 4,225.2; 2nd: 4,225.2; 3rd: 9,769.2; 4th: 9,769.2
motor mechanic: 1st year: 4,225.2; 2nd: 4,225.2; 3rd: 9,769.2; 4th: 9,769.2
bricklayer: 1st year: 1st year: 4,225.2; 2nd: 4,225.2; 3rd: 9,769.2; 4th: 9,769.2

More than 50% of the overall duration of apprenticeship
Number of hours per year (average): 1,587
The estimation is based on 80% of the regular working hours of a fully employed person in Austria. 20% of the time is spent in the vocational school.

Level: 3,20% of the annual gross income of apprentice
Paid by: the State
Rights: health, pension, accident, unemployment (like for all employees)

-
 

Basically, company-based training is entirely paid by the state (PES). Training providers receive fixed amount from the state to provide on-the-job training. If their training costs exceed this amount, they are expected to cover the difference. However, it can be assumed that training providers design their offers cost-covering which means that no financial means are contributed exceeding the funding by the state (PES).

The financial means provided by the State (PES) include the allowances (EUR 301.80 net per month for the first two years; from the third year onwards EUR 697.80 per month). Other contributions given by the state to the training provider are individually negotiated: The training providers are chosen in a bidding procedure and their financing proposal (costs calculated for the provision of supra-company training) as well as infrastructure are major selection criteria for winning the bid.Very often training providers selected for offering supra-company apprenticeships are bigger organisations which can use synergies within their organisations.

The scheme is fully financed by the State. Thus, the public financing equals total financing: EUR 152,000,000 (estimate).

The estimation is based on the evaluation referring to the years 2008/09 (öibf, IBW (2010). Jugendliche in der überbetrieblichen Berufsausbildung. Eine begleitende Evaluierung. Vienna: öibf/IBW.): For each apprentice of the supra-company apprenticeship in the province of Vienna it describes average costs of EUR 16,425 (vocational school: EUR 3,760; apprenticeship costs covered by the Federal State (PES) EUR 10,554; apprenticeship costs taken by the province of Vienna EUR 2,111). Projecting these figures on all apprentices of the supra-company apprenticeship in 2016 (9,244) that makes EUR 151,832,700. Assuming that costs may have risen since 2008/09 a total amount can be claimed of around EUR 152,000,000 per year.

Private costs on the side of the apprentice are of minor importance (minor travel costs etc.).
No statistics are available.

No EU funding involved.

The supra-company apprenticeship scheme aims at “simulating” a regular apprenticeship by replacing the missing training company by a training provider. Thus, it is a 'safety net' of dual apprenticeship scheme in Austria. It has distinct financing arrangements, though. The wages and other training costs covered by employer in dual apprenticeship scheme, here are funded by the state. As the supra-company apprenticeship scheme is totally State funded, it can be considered as financing instrument on its own.

The supra-company apprenticeship scheme works well in terms of providing unsuccessful apprenticeship applicants (sometimes belonging to disadvantaged target groups) with vocational training. Its major strength is giving the apprentices the possibility to change into a regular apprenticeship (and thus transferring training costs to an employer) at any given time. This is also described as the major goal of the scheme. The main weakness of the scheme is that this transfer does not happen often enough. The number of apprentices who finish their training in supra-company apprenticeship increases constantly compared to the number of apprentices that start in the supra-company scheme and complete the training as regular training apprentices (i.e. in dual apprenticeship).

No statutory minimum wage
Average yearly working time (hours) for a full time job: 1,738.20