The Impact of Work-oriented Basic Education from the Company Perspec-tive

Context: The aim of work-oriented basic education is to improve the employability of people with low literacy skills and to increase their chances on the labour market. A key element of work-oriented basic education are customized vocational language trainings that are developed in cooperation between educational- service providers and companies and which are implemented directly in the company.

Approach: It is generally undisputed that education has a positive impact. However, less attention is paid to the effects that result from the vocational language trainings in combination with specific service measures. Especially for companies, the focus is often primarily on the economic and directly achieved impact. Which impact (both economic and in terms of wider benefits) service measures achieve in the context of work-oriented basic education has been less empirically studied and is accordingly given less attention. In this paper, we link the question of the impact of service interventions in work-based basic education and present findings from a round- table discussion with company representatives that were collected through a social return on investment analysis.

Findings: The results are systematically presented using the output and the outcome. The output comprises the benefits that are realized through the investments in measures. Here we differentiate between a preparation phase, an implementation phase and an evaluation phase. The outcome describes the effects that have been achieved among the stakeholders. Impacts are illustrated on an individual level as well as the company level.

Conclusion: On basis of the data it becomes apparent that it depends on the implementation process how the impact of the training unfolds. In addition the temporal integration of the training into the respective shift system is taken into account to gain concretization of the impact and the impact chains. Furthermore, the entanglement of the training with fixed-term employment contracts requires a reflection on learning theory. The findings are intended to help provide companies and policymakers with an empirically supported decision-making basis for the implementation of work-oriented basic education.