"New Plan", berufliche Weiterentwicklung und die Rolle von Informationen

"Labour markets are changing and hence, it is generally required to continuously invest into life-long learning and, possibly, re-train. For workers it is important to have clear information on career options within and beyond their current occupation available. In this regard, the Federal Employment Agency (BA) offers a broad careers advice system (BBiE) and has – as part of the BBiE – also developed the online tool New Plan. New Plan is designed to help workers make progress in their careers, recognize their own strengths and find new perspectives. The tool consists of three sections: "Test opportunities", "Be inspired" and "Seek further training". The section on occupational inspiration provides occupation-based comprehensive information on professional reorientation. This research report presents the results of an online survey among employees and recipients of unemployment benefits. Among other things, the survey asked whether workers were aware of and used the New Plan tool, were interested in professional development and felt well informed about their wage and employment opportunities. The report also examines whether people answered these questions differently if they had previously received an information letter about the New Plan tool. In June 2022, persons were invited to take part in the survey who in January 2022 belonged to one of the following four groups: full-time employees subject to social security contributions (including those in unskilled jobs), full-time employees subject to social security contributions in unskilled jobs, recipients of unemployment benefit (including those without a vocational qualification), and recipients of unemployment benefit without a vocational qualification. The sample analyzed in this report comprises roughly 4,400 people. The results show that a significantly lower share of employees compared to workers with (previous) unemployment benefit receipt were aware of the New Plan online tool – without a prior information letter, the proportions were about 2 percent and 11 percent, respectively. Extrapolated to the actual population as a whole, this means that around 550,000 full-time employees and 90,000 recipients of unemployment benefit were aware of New Plan. The level of awareness of New Plan increases significantly for people who previously received an information letter – among full-time employees and unemployment benefit recipients, the level of awareness increases by 14 percentage points. Only a very small share of full-time employees without a prior information letter (0.3 percent) reported to have looked at New Plan. Among the workers with unemployment benefit receipt the share is 8 percent. Extrapolated to the above-mentioned actual populations, this means that around 63,000 full-time employees and 61,000 unemployment benefit recipients had, at least once, looked at New Plan. Again, the information letter sent out beforehand increased the shares of respondents who had already looked at the tool by around 10 percentage points. The survey also shows that full-time employees – about two third – were slightly less interested in professional development compared to recipients of unemployment benefit – about three quarters. However, with a high level of interest overall, there were only minor differences between workers with and without a previous information letter. Finally, more than 50 percent of the full-time employees felt well informed about their earning opportunities and – to a slightly greater extent – about their employment opportunities. More than 50 percent of unemployment benefit recipients also felt (rather) well informed, again with only slight differences between those with and without a previous information letter." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))