Many requests

Educational leave: the consequences of the impending end

Educational leave was often used to extend parental leave. Now it could be completely abolished under a new federal government. Since then, many questions have come to the AMS Upper Austria - here Managing Director Iris Schmidt.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Markus Wenzel, stock.adobe.com)

Too ineffective, too expensive - these are just two of the arguments used by critics to argue for the abolition of educational leave. In the negotiations between the blue and black parties, the training and further education leave paid for by the AMS is now on the verge of being abolished. A circumstance that is causing many inquiries at the Public Employment Service.

"Training and further education are important, but it has now become chic and modern for young, well-trained apprentices to come up with the idea of taking educational leave after a year of work because their girlfriend is also on educational leave - it's getting a bit out of hand," said Wolfgang Greil, Managing Director of the Wirtschaftsbund Oberösterreich, an ÖVP sub-organization, in January 2024, criticizing a "lack of motivation" and speaking of an "bad habit".

More than a year later, educational leave is threatened with extinction - at least if the austerity plans presented a few weeks ago in the course of the blue-black coalition negotiations for a new federal government are anything to go by. Above all, the fact that parental leave has been extended with educational leave and that less effective courses have been booked in order to obtain AMS funds with as little effort as possible has been sharply criticized.

We are currently confronted with many inquiries, most of which we are unable to answer because we have no information ourselves.

Iris Schmidt, Geschäftsführerin des AMS OÖ

The impending end of educational leave has raised the hackles of many who had speculated on it - the AMS in particular is being bombarded with questions. "We have received many, many inquiries about what could happen and what is planned," confirms Iris Schmidt, Managing Director of the Public Employment Service Upper Austria. She continues: "But the issue is that we don't know. We don't know the timetable, we don't even know if the government is coming."

Utilization will be brought forward
However, Schmidt and her team have already noticed that Some are taking their training leave earlier than originally planned out of fear that the educational leave offer might no longer exist in a few months' time. "So far, a lot of people have always taken educational leave in the fall because that's when many courses start. Now you notice that some people are simply trying to bring it forward," says Schmidt, "there is a noticeable nervousness."

Employees and employers alike are registering with the Public Employment Service. "The search for alternatives is underway in case educational leave should actually no longer exist," says the AMS Upper Austria Managing Director. There was also an increase in the number of people taking educational leave in Upper Austria in the years 2022 to 2024.