Interim Evaluation of the State Programme Welcome Center Baden-Württemberg 2019 - 2025

The recruitment of foreign skilled workers to alleviate the shortage of skilled workers has so far played only a subordinate role, especially in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), so that the potential of foreign skilled workers is not being fully exploited.

To counteract this problem, the state government has been promoting Welcome Centres (hereinafter WCC) in Baden-Württemberg since 2014. These centres focus their services on SMEs, international skilled workers (hereinafter referred to as iFk) and relevant network actors in the region. The WCCs are intended to serve as a contact, initial advice and information point for companies in all matters relating to the recruitment and rapid and successful integration of foreign skilled workers. They are to be sensitised to the potential of international skilled workers and informed and supported in all institutional and formal challenges associated with the employment of these skilled workers.

The subject of the study is each individual WCC on the one hand, and the WCC network as a whole on the other. Both perspectives are intended to reveal needs for optimisation and form the basis for recommendations for action to further raise the profile of the WCC offer for international professionals with regard to funding phase 3 (2024-2025) as well as for the continuation of the state programme from 2026.

The methodological evaluation concept provides for a mixed-methods approach. In order to answer the questions in the best possible way, quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis are combined.