Perspektive Wiedereinstieg — Germany's Federal Programme Coaching Career-Break Returners Back Into Work

'Perspektive Wiedereinstieg' is a German federal action programme, launched in 2008 by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) together with the Federal Employment Agency, targeting people, overwhelmingly women, who left skilled or professional jobs for three or more years for childcare or family-care responsibilities.

Rather than a single national service, the programme funded local project sponsors to run individual coaching, tailored qualification and employer-engagement measures at model sites across the country, financed through the European Social Fund (ESF).

In the first ESF model phase (March 2009–February 2012), the programme ran at 20 locations with 28 project sponsors, reaching over 17,000 people, of whom 4,660 received intensive individual coaching; 69% of those who completed the coaching found employment, self-employment or further training. A second phase reported a comparable 68% success rate, and across the 2007–2013 ESF period as a whole, more than 65% of nearly 7,000 intensively supported participants moved into social-security-covered employment or qualification.

The consistent ~65–69% success rates come from programme-level monitoring rather than an independent randomised or matched-comparison evaluation, so some of the apparent effect could reflect selection into a programme that already-motivated returners chose to join. The programme continued through the 2014–2020 ESF period before its funding line was absorbed into other federal labour-market measures.