Instruments of Financial Support While Pursuing Further Education in Austria

Structural change and an ever greater prevalence of digitalisation in the labour market call for an effective system of (further) education and training for adults. As the analysis shows, the key tools to help people in further education and training to finance their everyday needs – i.e., educational leave, part-time educational leave, skilled workers' grant and the grant for students who have supported themselves for at least four years before starting their studies – offer insufficient support to those most particularly affected by structural change and the digitalisation of the working world. It is thus necessary to adapt such tools and focus them at low- to medium-skilled individuals.