Qualification Opportunities Act

We are happy to assist you with this topic during your personal consultation. Since this is a very individual matter, there is no generic answer to the question of calculation. However, we will not leave you alone with this issue and will quickly and easily determine the needs of your company. If you reach 10 or 20%, you can receive higher subsidies for your employees

The partial reimbursement of wages refers only to the period in which the employee has spent working hours on further education. Therefore, if an employee participates in a full-time course and, consequently, spends a prolonged period participating in training instead of working at the company, the partial reimbursement of wages covers 100% of the working hours during the training period. However, if an employee participates in a part-time course, for example, with a workload of ten hours per week, the partial contribution from the Employment Agency only covers the 10 hours that the employee has spent on further education instead of working at the company.

In any case, an agreement should be made between the employer and the employee before the start of the training to define whether the training should be completed 100% during working hours. For instance, if an employee should complete 100% of the training duration during working hours, but the courses take place in the evening lasting two hours, it could be resolved as follows: The employee leaves the regular workplace two hours earlier than usual, and the two hours of training time during the evening are counted as working hours. In this scenario, the wage participation would be calculated proportionally for the two hours spent. In the case of an employee who has agreed with their employer to spend only 50% of the working time on training and to conduct the remaining 50% during their leisure time, this person would leave the workplace only one hour earlier in the same scenario. The two hours of training time in the evening would thus correspond to 50% working time and 50% leisure time. In this case, the participation in wages would only refer to the one hour defined as working time.

Regarding the training costs, the employer does not pay in advance but only bears his share of the training costs from the beginning. Once the Employment Office has made a decision regarding participation in the training costs, the employee receives a voucher for the amount financed by the Employment Agency. Therefore, the training provider receives the employer’s share of the costs on one side and the Employment Agency’s share on the other. As an employee, you only pay your share of the training costs. Regarding the wages, the Employment Office transfers the share of the wages to the employer each month in arrears for the previous month. To receive the final installment, the employer must, using a form, prove within two months after the end of the course that the employee has indeed spent the planned hours during working hours. Once this has been done, the employer finally receives the last monthly installment.

In the future, 50% of employees will need further training to adapt to technological progress and to be able to apply new technologies in their daily work. Overall, 74% of companies state that they want to utilize the ever-growing volumes of data to stay competitive and to secure their future sustainability. By training existing employees, your company saves on the high costs of external consultants and the time required to train new staff. When working with data, whether as a Data Analyst, Data Scientist, or Data Engineer, it is crucial that employees can understand the information and the context of the data. Only when this is achieved can the information be evaluated and used correctly and efficiently. Therefore, if a company trains its existing employees, they already have a basic understanding of the data and the business. The newly acquired skills in data science thus provide the employees with the optimal tools to use data as efficiently as possible. Additionally, our participants implement a comprehensive project in a corporate context, so that investing in our training programs already brings added value to the employer during the execution of the program. Fortunately, the topic of investment can be mitigated through the Qualification Opportunities Act, as both the training costs and the downtime in the company can be partially or fully reimbursed.

Yes, funding can increase by 5% due to membership in a union. This applies to both participation in training costs and participation in wages. The prerequisite is that the collective agreement mandates the implementation of company-specific professional training. The same regulation applies to companies that are not union members but have defined such a regulation in a company agreement.

Yes, the amount of funding is largely determined by the size, i.e., the number of employees in the company. Micro-enterprises with fewer than 10 employees receive the most funding. However, the amount of funding is also influenced by other factors, such as the age of the employee to be supported, the general need for funding within the company, and the existence of a company agreement or collective bargaining agreement that mandates company-specific professional training.

In the case that you want to request funding for the same training for several employees, it is possible to submit a collective application. This way, you do not need to fill out a separate application for each employee with the identical information, simplifying and shortening the application process. The prerequisite for this is that the qualifications, educational goals, and the desired training for the interested employees are comparable. The preparation of a collective application is also covered by our DataScientest 360° Service.

Do you have several employees in your company who are interested in the same training? At DataScientest, we offer customized, in-company training groups. In this case, the training can be tailored to the needs and learning objectives of your company, and the projects conducted within our trainings can be implemented in the context of your company. The minimum number for such in-company training is 12 participants.

No, there is no age limit. The Qualification Opportunities Act applies to all age groups. Employees over the age of 45 even have an advantage and can, if they work in a company with fewer than 250 employees, have their training costs reimbursed 100%. Moreover, in this case, it is not necessary that the last professional training was more than four years ago.

Yes, that is generally possible. A bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree, as well as vocational training, fall into the category of a professional qualification. The only requirement is that the professional qualification must have been obtained at least four years ago.

In general, it is possible to get additional costs, such as travel expenses, reimbursed by the Employment Agency. However, you do not need to deal with this issue in the case of our training courses, as we offer our courses exclusively online. This provides our participants with maximum flexibility and allows them to manage their own learning times.

If the training is conducted in a part-time format and you work in the evenings or on weekends, for example, it is crucial to define clear framework conditions with your employer before the training starts. For instance, if a course requires 10 hours of work per week, it needs to be clarified whether the time the employee invests in training is defined as working hours. If this is the case and the employee wants to spend two hours in the evening on training, they could leave the workplace two hours earlier. This ensures that no overtime accumulates during leisure time in addition to the actual working hours.

However, it is also possible to agree with the employer to conduct a certain portion of the training during working hours and the rest during leisure time. Such an agreement should be individually arranged between the employer and the employee and communicated accordingly with the Employment Agency.

In certain cases, it is still possible to receive support for your project. Exempt from this rule are businesses with fewer than 250 employees, employees over 45 years of age, and employees with severe disabilities.

As a general rule, the earlier the better. Based on our experience and discussions with the Employment Agency, however, we recommend getting in touch with us at least one month before the course starts so we can begin the application process. If this isn’t possible, please feel free to contact us anyway and we will find a customized solution for you and your company.

The processing time depends heavily on the current workload at the Employment Agency. Generally, it is possible to receive an initial assessment from the Employment Agency within one week. The further speed of the application process depends on how quickly the various application forms are submitted and how correctly and completely they are filled out. If no further inquiries are needed from the Employment Agency, then the process accelerates accordingly. Since we take over the application process and communication with the Employment Agency through our 360° Service, we can expedite the process as much as possible based on our experience

When it comes to the initial assessment by the Employment Agency, it is possible to conduct this in a nonspecific manner initially. It primarily concerns the company itself and the employee to be further trained. However, the application process can be accelerated if the measure number of the training and the training provider are already specified in advance. This way, the Employment Agency is given a comprehensive overview right from the first step, making a global assessment easier.

We work with a consent form that specifically authorizes us to handle the application process for the Qualification Opportunities Act with the Employment Agency on behalf of a company. Despite this, the signing of the application documents is carried out by the employee and the employer themselves. This way, we can take over the communication and application process with the Employment Agency.

During the application process, it is inevitably necessary to fill out many different application forms. Within these forms, terms often repeat or are used as synonyms in different places across various applications. In our DataScientest Checklist, we have compiled an overview of all the information you need. In this way, you send us all the relevant information once at the beginning, and our consultants fill out the application forms for you. This saves you the often tedious task of searching for and comparing information from various application documents and centralizes the needed information in one document for you

No, there are no additional costs for our service. Our service is 100% free and provides us with the opportunity to demonstrate our support to our participants even before the training begins.