Supporting the highly talented - discovering talents

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Promoting talented children and adolescents

Support of the highly talented in the pre-school area and in school is first and foremost a task of the Länder. The Federal Government supports the Länder policy by means of research projects and national competitions, such as "Young Researchers" or the national competition in foreign languages (web addresses: www.wettbewerbe.info; www.bundeswettbewerbe.de). The handbook "Begabte Kinder finden und fördern" is to contribute to identifying talented and highly talented children and adolescents and to understand them better. Furthermore, it provides comprehensive information on the possibilities of counselling and support provided by different institutions.

Supporting the highly-talented on the job

High performance on the job is as important as in scientific or art work. The "Vocational Training Programme for the Highly Talented" therefore supports talented young skilled employees who want to upgrade their qualifications by continuing training in their occupation. Support for the highly talented is also seed money for independent continuing training and in this way promotes the willingness to engage in lifelong learning. Different providers offer a broad range of qualifications. Grant recipients can freely choose a continuing training programme from this range. The "Vocational Training Programme for the Highly Talented" is currently funding 15,000 grant recipients with an annual total of €14.6 million (www.begabtenfoerderung.de).

Supporting highly-talented students and young scientists

Supporting highly-talented students and young scientists is of great importance within the framework of social and education policy. A future-oriented development of our country requires the contribution of these highly-talented minds. The Federal Government therefore provides the eleven gifted education funding organizations - mostly foundations - with considerable funds for their work and thereby supports many talented students and doctoral students each year by means of grants. €80.5 million are annually earmarked for this purpose (www.begabtenfoerderungswerke.de).