Working Life > Further Education > Retraining

Retraining

Definition, Explanation

Retraining is a special kind of professional further education that must lead to a degree with a Chamber of Commerce examination for example in recognized qualified job. Further education where no such degree is foreseen may not be called retraining.

Either the Job Centre or another funding agency like the state insurance institution as bearer of statutory pension fund, municipal rehabilitation providers, accident insurance, trade associations or the army assuming the costs for retraining basically demand:

• The applicant must be at least 18 years old
• Initial training, whether successful or not, has been completed
• The possibility of getting a job in the field of initial training is no longer available or foreseeable that it will not be possible in the future due to personal requirements or the general condition of the job market.
  Typical personal requirements comprise, for example physical or psychological impairments that can appear after an accident. In this case, retraining is taken over by a "vocational promotion centre" or "another rehabilitation institution" in the scope of rehabilitation measures.
• The chosen retraining profession must be suitable for preventing present or threatening unemployment in the end. As many criticisers have said, this is where many mistakes were made in the past. Too many people were retrained to too few jobs like "industrial clerk" without heeding the needs on the market.

The duration of education when retraining is usually reduced by 30% and is about 2 years. One supposes that the trainee already has a sufficient amount of basic general knowledge and basic professional knowledge due to his/ her initial training.

Depending on the kind of profession, the institutions carrying out retraining can be:

• Private companies
• Technical colleges
• Private or public institutions of education

Furthermore, one differentiates between group and individual retraining. Group retraining primarily orientates itself towards the supposed requirements on the job market, are planned for a number of participants in the long term and centrally. Individual retraining provides the possibility of being responsive to special talents and the needs of those affected.

Tips, Checklist

• If you think retraining could be useful or necessary for you, then contact your contact person responsible for you at the Job Centre
• Enquire about the possibility of financing retraining over the so-called education voucher. You have no claim to it. It is a service that can be provided by the Job Centre. Good arguments and friendly persistence is all that helps
• Sometimes retraining is denied on the grounds of you having a "promising" profession and there being sufficient jobs offered. The fact that your training took place long ago or you worked "astray" is possibly overseen. In such a case, bring forward the large number of job refusals you have received
• Check whether a different funding agency to the Job Centre could come into question, like the state insurance institution
• Before you make a decision about which retraining institution to chose, you should take a closer look at the selected institution, company or school. Speak to the teachers and trainees there. You can obtain valuable information about the quality of the institution from graduates especially. If possible, enquire about the institution's reputation by asking employers
• Before you decide to go for retraining, get a realistic picture of the profession by doing an apprenticeship. Many a company is prepared to let you "get the taste" of it for a while. In the case of a subsequent job application, you can fall back on contacts and company knowledge
• For many kinds of retraining like as a nurse, a preceding traineeship lasting several months is essential. Consider this when planning
• Part-time retraining or correspondence courses are a good idea if you are time or place bound
• In the case of approval of retraining, the Job Centre assumes all costs incurred in the scope of retraining. Recipients of unemployment benefit I or II continue to receive their benefit, whereby recipients of unemployment benefit I may not be downgraded to unemployment benefit II. They continue to receive unemployment benefit I until 30 days after completion of retraining

Last update: 07/15/2010