The retraining grant introduced in 2024, designed for upskilling employees within existing companies, is reportedly seeing extremely low uptake. According to a government response to an inquiry by the Green Party, reported by Handelsblatt, the funding provided by the Federal Employment Agency failed to reach 400 employees between April 2024 and December 2025. This qualification grant was intended to be the central tool for facilitating industrial transformation-such as retraining combustion engine experts for electric vehicles or equipping traditional installers with knowledge of photovoltaic systems and heat pumps.
Sylvia Rietenberg, a labor market politician from the Green Party, described the figures as disappointing. She told Handelsblatt that this situation indicates that useful measures must not only be introduced but must also be continuously refined to be practical for businesses. Given the massive costs associated with modernizing the economy, the Ministry of Labor initially allocated an annual budget of €360 million for the grant, which was later reduced to €200 million for 2024. Despite this, only €108,035 was distributed in 2024, and just €442,408 in the subsequent year.
The Central Association of Crafts (ZdH) has recommended canceling the grant altogether, citing its lack of effective use. A spokesman told Handelsblatt that removing the measure would streamline the existing array of qualification incentives. The industry attributes the disinterest to the considerable administrative effort required; companies must demonstrate that a retraining program is necessitated by economic transformation, and the initiative must affect at least ten to twenty percent of the workforce, depending on the size of the company.
