Guidance Programmes and Transfer of Basic Workplace Skills Help Unemployed With Migration Background Finding a New Job Faster

Certain external training measures of the German Job Centres help unemployed people with migration background receiving unemployment benefits (ALG II) to find a new job more quickly. Migrants especially benefit from guidance programmes to help individuals indentify their suitability for certain careers and courses which impart general workplace qualifications. The latter increase the possibility for women with migration background to find a new job by 13 percentage point, compared to a situation without any support. However, measures like job application trainings or a combination of the different measures were largely ineffective or even counterproductive. These are the findings of a study conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim. The study analyses for the first time for Germany how training measures affect the labour market success of migrants.

The study is based on data by the German Federal Employment Agency from 2006. The study compares the effect of training measures on unemployed migrants and unemployed Germans. A total of 160,000 people were analysed.

People with migration background make up an disproportionately high percentage of unemployed people in Germany. With the exception of language courses, the Job Centres support them with the same measures like unemployed Germans. They take guidance programmes to help individuals identify their suitability for certain careers, programmes to impart basic workplace skills, job application trainings, as well as programmes which combine all of the mentioned training curricula.

The ZEW study indicates that migrants and Germans largely benefit from guidance programmes which determine their eligibility for certain professions. The probability of employment one year after a guidance programme is around five percentage points higher for women with migration background than without this programme. This is the substantial effect because the employment probability is around 20 percent for all unemployed people, however only ten percent for women with migration background. Women without migration background benefit from guidance programmes even more with an higher employment probability up to ten percentage points. The same effect can be seen for men with or without migration background. Their employment probability increases as well by up to ten percentage points.

The transfer of general wokplace skills like typewriting or business knowledge also increases the employment probability. The probability to find a new job one year after the training has begun is 13 percent points higher for women with migration background than employment probability of female migrants who did not attend these measures. Women without migration background only have a six percentage points higher employment probability. The reverse effect can be seen for men. German unemployed men benefit more from the training than men with migration background.

Job application trainings do not have a significant effect on the labour market success for men, regardless of their migration background. Women without migration background on the other hand do benefit from such training. However, the employment probability for women with migration background is affected negatively during the first six months after the training has started. "The explanation of this negative effect may be that women with migration background act differently when looking for a job. While German women preferably answer to job adverts in newspapers or online plattforms, women with migration background prefer job hunting in their personal environment or via friends and acquaintances. Written documents or formal interviews are mostly invalid and trainings offered by the Job Centres come to nothing", says Thomas Walter, researcher at ZEW and responsible for the study.

The study also reveals that the combination of different measures does not have any effect on the employment probability neither for migrants nor for Germans. "These findings indicate that guidance programmes and the transfer of general workplace skills help migrants and Germans to overcome unemployment and find a new job", Walter says. "Job Centres should rely on the ZEW findings to critically review the application training and the combined measures".

For further information please contact

Dr. Thomas Walter, Phone: +49 (0)621/1235-363, E-Mail: walter@zew.de