Cohorts
Many single cases become one group you can plan.
Qualification need arises person by person and can only be delivered together. Only as a group is it a request.
The cohort is also the unit a works council deliberates on
Automation technology, October start
42
18
24
matching profile
42
expressed interest
31
schedule works
26
cohort confirmed
24
Illustrative sample scenario. No real customer, no real providers, no real employees.
Product view
How a cohort comes together
Four stages, each with its own question. The gaps show where a group loses people.
matching profile
Role clusters point at the same target role, and the same learning path closes the gap.
42
expressed interest
Informed through the employee app, participation expressed voluntarily. Anyone who declines drops out with no consequence.
31
schedule works
Shift plans, blocked holidays, utilisation and cover are checked. This is where most measures fail.
26
cohort confirmed
Participant list discussed with the works council, date and location requested from the provider.
24
Why this is the decisive step
A group is a different thing from many individuals
Between knowing that two dozen people need the same skill and holding a date sits this step.
Only a group is a request.
To a single enquiry a provider offers the next open date, to a group a date of its own.
Only then can dates be set.
A cohort can be split across shift groups and run twice.
Only then does location become negotiable.
Above a certain group size a provider comes into the plant instead of people travelling one by one.
Only then is the effort bearable.
Coordination with the department, the works council and the provider is spent once per cohort, not once per person.
Only then does it fit co-determination.
A works council deliberates on measures and participant groups, not on individual cases.
A recommendation for one person stays a suggestion. Two dozen people with the same need are a request a provider answers.
In detail
Why participant selection is documented and never simply set
Putting a cohort together touches co-determination directly, at the strongest point of the Works Constitution Act.
Section 98 (1) BetrVG
Delivery of in-company training
The works council co-determines the delivery of in-company training measures. A genuine right, not a hearing: without agreement the measure does not go ahead in that form.
Section 98 (3) BetrVG
Right to propose participants
The works council may propose which employees take part. Who attends is therefore explicitly a matter of joint deliberation.
Section 97 (2) BetrVG
Precisely the case at hand
Where measures taken by the employer change people's work such that their knowledge is no longer sufficient, the works council co-determines the introduction of vocational training measures.
What follows for the product
No participant list is simply set. The platform shows who is eligible on skill grounds, on what basis, and who decides.
Every stage carries its criterion. The funnel can be walked through line by line with the works council.
Interest stays voluntary. Declining is not assessed and creates no entry in any profile.
Works council proposals have a place. They can be added in the same view instead of running alongside it.
Qualification in groups is what the law already assumes
The legislator therefore treats qualification during structural change as a group matter from the outset.
20%
of the workforce has to be affected
10%
for companies below 250 employees
Qualification allowance under Section 82a SGB III, in force since 1 April 2024, requires on the company side that structural-change qualification needs affect at least 20 percent of the workforce and are documented in a works agreement or collective agreement.
To be clear: QualiShift is not a funding platform. No eligibility checks, no entitlements, no applications. The provision is cited as evidence only.
Further along the chain
Once the cohort stands, the documents come out of the same data.
Next step
The group becomes the document for the next meeting
Cohort overview, training plan and timeline come out of the same data that formed the cohort.