AVGS Coaching Explained: How Germany Funds Job Coaching

AVGS coaching is job coaching that Germany's employment agencies pay for with a voucher. A caseworker at the Jobcenter or the Agentur für Arbeit issues an activation and placement voucher (Aktivierungs- und Vermittlungsgutschein, AVGS) under § 45 SGB III. The job seeker takes it to an approved provider, and the agency pays. In September 2026, 152,000 people (opens in a new tab) sat in these activation measures, about 21% of everyone in Germany's active labour market programmes. I coach inside this system. This guide explains the mechanics for ministries, employment services and ESF+ teams in other countries, and which parts are worth copying.

What AVGS coaching pays for

§ 45 (1) SGB III (opens in a new tab) lists what an activation measure may do:

1. Bring people closer to the training and labour market, and find, reduce or remove the barriers that keep them from a placement.
2. Place them in a job with social insurance.
3. Prepare them for self-employment.
4. Stabilise a job they have just started.

The fourth point is easy to miss. German law treats the first weeks in a new job as part of the measure, so a provider can keep supporting a person after the contract is signed.

The same paragraph adds a sentence written for long-term unemployment. For people whose way into work is "particularly difficult" because of serious barriers, "in particular the length of their unemployment", the agency should fund measures whose content and duration reflect their greater need for stabilisation and support. In plain terms: people who have been out of work longer get longer and more intensive support.

The agency covers "the reasonable cost of taking part", as far as the person needs it to get into work.

How the voucher works

The voucher moves through five steps:

1. The caseworker certifies eligibility. Under § 45 (4), the agency confirms that the person qualifies and sets the goal and content of the measure. It may limit the voucher in time and to a region.
2. The caseworker decides, case by case. § 45 (5) ties the decision to the person's suitability, their personal situation and the services available locally. Most job seekers have no legal right to a voucher.
3. The job seeker chooses. The voucher entitles the person to pick a provider with an approved course, a provider paid only for successful placement, or an employer offering an in-company measure of up to six weeks.
4. The provider hands in the voucher before the start.
5. The measure runs, and the agency pays the provider.

One legal right exists. Under § 45 (7), a person with an unemployment benefit claim who is still unemployed after six weeks and not placed within three months has a right to a voucher for a success-paid placement provider.

Jobcenters use the same instrument. § 16 (1) SGB II (opens in a new tab), the law for people on basic income support, lets them fund activation measures under SGB III. Most of the volume sits there: of the 152,000 participants in September 2026, 79% were in measures funded from basic income support, according to the Federal Employment Agency.

Who may deliver it: approved providers, approved courses

Germany approves the course as well as the company running it.

• The provider needs approval from an accredited certification body, a fachkundige Stelle (§ 176 SGB III (opens in a new tab)). § 178 (opens in a new tab) asks for capacity and reliability, the ability to support people into work through the provider's own efforts, qualified staff, a quality assurance system and fair contract terms with participants.
• The course needs its own approval under § 179 (opens in a new tab). The body checks whether the content, methods, materials and organisation let you expect successful participation, and whether the course fits the labour market. Duration counts as reasonable only when it stays at what the goal needs.

For a programme manager abroad, § 179 works as a design checklist: content, method, materials, organisation, labour market fit, cost and length.

Limits and payments

These outcome payments apply to the placement-voucher route (§ 45 (4) Nr. 2); coaching courses are paid at approved cost rates. The payment split deserves attention. On that route the provider earns the second half only if the person still works there after six months, which rewards placements that last.

How big activation measures are

The Federal Employment Agency's September 2026 report (opens in a new tab) gives the scale:

• 152,000 people in activation measures in September 2026, about 21% of all participants in active labour market policy.
• 1,017,000 entries into these measures over the previous twelve months, 160,000 more than a year earlier (+19%).
• 1,070,000 long-term unemployed people, defined in § 18 SGB III (opens in a new tab) as unemployed for a year or longer. That is 35.7% of all unemployed people.

What the evaluations say

The Institute for Employment Research (IAB) compared participants on basic income support with statistical twins who did not take part. Tamara Harrer summarised the results in 2021 (opens in a new tab): three years after the start, measures run by providers raised the chance of regular, unsubsidised employment by between 6 and 16 percent. Measures run at an employer raised it by between about 44 and 62 percent.

Two more findings matter for programme design. The effects were larger for long-term unemployed people than for short-term unemployed people. And the IAB concludes that direct contact with employers helps people far from the labour market in particular.

Five parts other countries can copy

1. A voucher with choice. The caseworker sets the goal and the person picks the provider.
2. Approval of the course as well as the company. A § 179-style check on content, method, materials and length stops weak courses before they start.
3. Longer support written into the rules. § 45 (1) tells caseworkers to fund longer, more intensive measures for people who have been out of work longest.
4. Payments tied to jobs that last. On the placement route, half at six weeks, half at six months.
5. Employer contact inside the programme. The IAB results favour measures with direct employer contact, so a classroom programme should still bring employers into the room.

A sixth part comes from EU policy. The Council Recommendation on long-term unemployment (opens in a new tab) asks for "a single point of contact" for each registered long-term unemployed person. In the programme I coach in, the course ends with a handover to the person's Jobcenter caseworker, so the next step is agreed before the group ends.

Where I work in this system

Since September 2022 I have worked as a career coach for International Motivation Training Deutschland (IMT), an approved provider, in programmes funded by the Jobcenter and the Arbeitsagentur (AVGS, § 45 SGB III). Across Germany's career and integration programmes I have coached more than 2,000 adults, in groups and one to one, in German and Russian.

In the programme I coach in, mindset comes first and the CV comes later. We start with beliefs, the comfort zone, strengths and goals, then move to how the German job market works, applications and interview practice. When groups finish, the feedback I hear most is about individual attention, a clearer plan for the next step, and not feeling alone in it. I wrote up the lessons in what 2,000 adults starting over in Germany taught me.

If you run or fund a programme for adults out of work, in Lithuania, Germany or elsewhere in the EU, see how I design and deliver employability programmes, or book a call and tell me your target group and your timeline. The companion guides cover activating long-term unemployed adults and measuring what works.