Sustainable financing secures access to qualitative education

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Education systems in developing countries are often chronically underfinanced. This is particularly true in the area of vocational education and training, as vocational education and training costs more than, for example, basic and secondary education. In many countries there is a lack of sufficient state resources and/or appropriate tax systems to ensure adequate financing of vocational education and training in the long term.

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The consequences are usually inadequate technical equipment in terms of quality and quantity and a shortage of qualified teachers, which affects the quality of training.

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The (usually scarce) available budget funds are often used according to rigid mechanisms and with little focus on needs. Demand-oriented financing instruments, which provide effective incentives to improve the quality of vocational training provision, hardly exist in many countries or have only a limited reach.

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The charging of training fees entails the risk of exclusion of financially weak groups. They are therefore generally levied to cover only part of the training costs.

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Our range of services

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PLANCO's services initially include analyses of government systems for financing education (budget revenue, use of funds, allocation mechanisms). This includes cost accounting and budget planning at the level of educational institutions, where special analysis and planning instruments developed by PLANCO are used.

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Furthermore, PLANCO develops approaches for the sustainable financing of vocational education and training and tests their implementation within the framework of corresponding development projects.

 

Our work includes the following services:

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Policy advice

• Analysis and conception of processes for the generation and allocation of financial resources

• Advising partner governments on the development of guidelines for education financing 

• Advising political decision-makers on the development and establishment of sustainable financing systems for vocational education and training 

• Development of concepts for the introduction of education funds

• Advising partner governments on the anchoring of new financing mechanisms in laws, regulations and implementation strategies

• Advising KfW on the development of project approaches for demand-oriented education financing

• Development of concepts for Results-based Financing | RBF

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Cost accounting and financial planning

• Development of IT-supported instruments for cost accounting and financial planning of educational institutions

• Advising vocational training institutions on the development of business plans to secure sustainable financing

• Cost-benefit studies for alternative vocational training approaches

• Cost-benefit analyses for the commitment of companies in the context of dual vocational training

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Project development and project design

• Feasibility and project design studies for innovative development projects, in particular on behalf of KfW 

• Conception of voucher programmes for the financing of vocational education and training

• Conception of Challenge Funds as a competition-based instrument for the promotion of demand-oriented vocational training projects

• Conception of scholarship programmes and loan programmes for education financing

• Planning of measures to introduce alternative instruments for financing vocational training

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Project implementation 

• Implementation of consulting projects for the reorientation of state education financing

• Management consultancy for vocational training institutions with a focus on sustainable financing

• Government advice on the development and implementation of sustainable financing strategies

• Design, establishment and management of various vocational training funds | see below

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Fund management

• Conception of vocational training funds incl. promotion policy and implementation strategy

• Development of operational fund management processes, including application and award procedures, procurement and disbursement processes

• Development of sustainable management structures

• Development of database-supported management information systems

• Design, establishment and management of voucher, scholarship and loan programmes 

• Design, establishment and management of Challenge Funds for vocational education and training.

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References in the field Education Finance.