Mehr Weiterbildung durch neue soziale Rechte?

Further training is seen as the key to coping with structural change. The institutional approach to policy analysis can highlight the chances and pitfalls of new policies. From an institutional starting point this article scrutinises and compares the recently introduced training voucher for employees (2018), the concept of an individual employees’ account suggested by the Federal Department of Labour (BMAS 2017) and the model of a collectively organised training fund, developed by Gerhard Bosch (Bosch 2010). The authors thereby show that the effectiveness of new instruments should be assessed by whether the purpose and target group are adequately specified, by what extent these instruments enhance social rights, and whether they fit in with the existing policy regime as a whole. The analysis provides political benchmarks for the practicability and institutional consequences of reform proposals. It demonstrates that institutional criteria are just as necessary as economic cost-benefit assessments in labour market policy making.