Joint purchase training

Yhteishankintakoulutus

Country	Finland , applies nationwide
Time period	Open ended, started on 01 January 1991
Context	Digital Transformation, Restructuring Support Instruments
Type	Legislations or other statutory regulations
Category	Reorientation of business activities – Matching/networking
Author	Elina Härmä (Oxford Research) and Eurofound
Measure added	23 June 2022 (updated 15 November 2024)

Background information

Joint purchase training is targeted at employers who need to restructure or train their employees, or to find skilled workforce.

Together with public employment services (PES), employers can use the ’joint purchase training’ (yhteishankintakoulutus) scheme to find skilled workforce, or retrain their personnel

Education providers, Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY centers) are responsible for the services at regional level.

Content of measure

The scheme consists of three types of services:

Recruitment Training (RekryKoulutus): If an employer cannot find skilled workforce otherwise, and the education system does not provide enough people for the specific tasks needed in the near future, PES can assist companies in the recruitment process by organising tailored training programmes. The employer draws up a training plan together with PES for the personnel they want to recruit.
Tailored Training (TäsmäKoulutus): If an employer needs to retrain their personnel due to operational or technological changes in their sector, they can apply for customised vocational training partly financed by PES. PES finds the education provider through a public tendering process and chooses employees for training.
Change Training (MuutosKoulutus): If an employer dismisses personnel due to financial and production-related reasons, they can organise training together with PES with the aim of helping the employee finding a new job.

The annual public expenses for the joint purchase training scheme were:

€23.9 million in 2017;
€20.1 million in 2016;
€13.2 million in 2015;
€15 million in 2014.

Updates

The following updates to this measure have been made after it came into effect.

01 December 2023

Reports of government spending on the measure can not be separated from other vocational training measures and schemes, but according to one government report, €196 million was spent on Acquisition of training in 2022. According to another report, €105 million was spent on labour market training in 2022, whilst the amount spent by the ELY Centres' various contracting units on joint procurement for labour market training was just over €1.6 million. This number however comes with data collection related uncertainties.

06 June 2019

In connection to the Government's Talent Boost (Case 17/2692) programme, the training includes language training in work-related Finnish and work-related Swedish. This training enables companies to promote the work-related and professional language skills of existing or recruited foreign-language staff. Language training are part of the Talent Boost package of services to support the matching of companies and international talent.

Use of measure

This instrument can remove some of the financial barriers connected to competence development of employees.

According to the assessment (TK-Eval, 2012), the minimum duration of training of 10 working days can be problematic for small companies. Smaller companies would sometimes need shorter forms of training and this minimum requirement may hinder their participation.

According to an assessment (TK-Eval, 2012) commissioned by Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, three types of services had a positive impact on the companies that used them. 72% of the companies (n=24-25) experienced that these services had a positive impact on competence development of the company. 41% of the companies argued that these services had a positive effect on the turnover rate of the companies. 44% of the companies had had either a significant positive impact or a positive impact on the company's productivity.

The total number of training days per year has varied from around 250,000 to 350,000.

In 2016, approximately 23,500 people participated in some kind of vocational training scheme under the administration of public employment services, including training under the joint purchase scheme. The equivalent average number of persons in training per month in 2022 was 19,719, which was 6.8% lower than in the year before. In total 106,200 applications were made to the total training scheme of which 43% lead to a starting of a training programme. A vast majority (over 70%) of participants were registered as unemployed.

In 2023, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment reported the effectiveness of the joint purchase training to be excellent in terms of employment. Around 80% of participants who started the training were employed within 12 months.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Applies to all workers	Applies to all businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Public employment service	Employer National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Unknown	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

Unknown
Main level of involvement: Unknown

Involvement

Unknown

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