The Qualification Initiative for Germany: The Crisis as an Opportunity to Improve Education

• On behalf of the Robert Bosch Stiftung, McKinsey has presented the first detailed investment scenario for implementation of the goals of the German Education Summit.
• McKinsey estimates that up to 46 billion euros in additional funding will be available for education between now and 2015.
• These investments must give priority to early childhood education.
• Investments in education and research are especially urgent in the present crisis.

Stuttgart, 5 May 2009 – High educational qualifications are of strategic importance to Germany as a high-tech location: Good education secures competitiveness, prosperity, jobs and a sustainable welfare state. Both for individuals and for the state and society, education is the decisive and most profitable investment in the future. This applies especially during the current crisis: Investments in education and research should be at the center of successful crisis management.

At the Education Summit in Dresden in 2008, the German federal and state governments decided to increase public and private education investments to seven percent of gross domestic product by 2015. The investment scenario „Die Qualifizierungsinitiative für Deutschland“ (The Qualification Initiative for Germany) presented by the management consultancy McKinsey & Company on behalf of the Robert Bosch Stiftung has computed the amount of additional funding available for the German education system every year during the period 2010 to 2015 under this reform. „Based on current GDP forecasts and presuming a linear increase, up to 46 billion euros in additional education funding per year will be available until 2015,” says Nelson Killius, Partner at McKinsey.

The investment scenario lists specific measures and corresponding investment decisions that can be financed with these additional funds. „During the period until 2015, priority must be given to early childhood education. This is where the foundation is laid for future education careers. It is also where we see the greatest need for improvement and where the greatest returns can be expected“, says Dr. Ingrid Hamm, Executive Director of the Robert Bosch Stiftung. In addition to early childhood education, the recommendations also focus on general-education schools, further professionalization of the teaching profession and school directors and management boards, improved vocational training, and the urgently needed increase in the ratio of academically qualified job market entrants in Germany.

The investment scenario provides a detailed foundation for political decision-making. It offers transparent investment decision options to improve the country’s education capital that can guide the implementation of the „Qualification Initiative for Germany“ agreed at the Dresden summit last year. The measures required are overdue; some that have already begun to be introduced indicate very promising results. Nelson Killius at McKinsey: „The proposed measures will cost money, but can be financed with the additional funding budgeted. We wish to warn against delaying education reform. If we want to emerge from this crisis in a stronger position, the reforms must finally be implemented - and in view of the crisis at increased speed.“