Christian Philipp Nixdorf(Bildungs-)Beratung im Jobcenter

About this book deutschenglish

Statistically speaking, long-term unemployed recipients of Arbeitslosengeld II in Germany are much less qualified than recipients of Arbeitslosengeld I. In 2018, about 56 % of all long-term unemployed recipients of ALG II were without formal qualification or insufficiently qualified. At 85 %, the percentage of long-term unemployed foreign nationals without formal qualification is even higher. Due to the advancing digitalization and increased qualificatory requirements, their chance to overcome un-employment is minimal. This results in increasing costs for unemployment benefits and can have negative effects in regards to the social inclusion and wellbeing of long-term unemployed people.

Educational counseling is a way to approach this by providing opportunities for education and vocational training. At the jobcenter, this counselling is carried out by street-level bureaucrats called Integrationsfachkräfte. They have an ambivalent role to play since they also have the power to cut unemployment benefits if they perceive a lack of participation on the part of the unemployed. Furthermore, counseling at the jobcenter does not always take place voluntarily, and not all street-level bureaucrats have sufficient advisory competence. In addition, providing educational counseling at the jobcenter is challenging due to conflicting goals since - as a part of the so called Hartz-Reforms - a governance structure based on the New Public Management approach was implemented at the jobcenter.

In summary, educational counseling at the jobcenter is possible, but the conditions under which it takes place make it difficult to create a constructive rapport. Based on a participant observation by the author, who worked in three jobcenters for 5 ½ years, these challenges are presented in this text.