Educational leave

Expensive model – and not in the spirit of the inventor

The main reason for moving abroad is a "better lifestyle".

(Bild: Olga Yastremska, New Africa, Africa Studio - stock.adobe.com)

For 25 years, the state has been financing further education for working people. This currently costs 512 million a year. And there is criticism of whether it makes sense.

"I'm off for a while!" - A sentence full of anticipation and joie de vivre. Not just for classic dropouts. Educational leave has been available to working people for 25 years. The aim: additional qualifications for the job. Especially for poorly trained, low-skilled employees with a correspondingly low income. Now it turns out that the well-intentioned model is - to put it politely - not being brought to life in the spirit of its inventor. 

"At  theexpense of the general public"
 "It is not mainly the poorly qualified who learn new skills with state support in order to increase their market value. It is mainly those who already have a good education. Quite a few apparently see this as an opportunity to take a sabbatical at the expense of the general public," says economist Carmen Treml from Agenda Austria.

The liberal economic think tank has looked at developments over the last quarter of a century. Educational leave is becoming increasingly popular - and increasingly expensive. Costs have almost doubled since 2020 alone: Including social security contributions, expenses amounted to 512.1 million euros for the state in 2023. In 2019, the figure was 213.6 million euros. This corresponds to an increase of 140 (!) percent in this short period of time. And mainly better educated people.

Only 2,500 of the 22,000 recipients have only completed compulsory education. However, for around a quarter of them, it is not certain what type of education they have.

Economist Carmen Treml criticizes the costs of educational leave.

(Bild: Hannah Schierholz)

"AMS's hands are tied here"
 In principle, all options that are relevant to a career in some way are considered education or training. "That is broadly defined. And leaves a lot of leeway for the companies that have to approve parental leave. The AMS's hands are more or less tied here," says Carmen Treml. You would have to cite diving courses for journalists in the Seychelles or yoga courses for programmers in New Zealand to be rejected.

In fact, despite numerous objections, only two percent of applications submitted to the AMS were actually rejected in 2022. At least 20 hours a week must be spent on further education (16 for children with custody). Only a quarter of these hours must be spent in training facilities.

Trend towards extending the "baby break"
Another development: most recipients are women - until 2018, men were on a par. And there is a trend towards extending the "baby break". In 2021, the proportion of women who extended their educational leave was already just under 70 percent.

Educational leave also reveals that companies are "saving at the expense of the AMS" in difficult economic times. 

In view of these spiraling costs, Agenda Austria recommends a reform of educational leave. The Minister for Economic Affairs and Labor, Martin Kocher, has also already considered this. After all, we are talking about half a billion euros of taxpayers' money that is being distributed more or less sensibly.