The purpose of the Company Panel of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) is to analyze, on a longitudinal basis, the structures and developments of company activities and measures for qualification and securing skilled workers. The surveys focus on in-company initial and continuing training activities and the qualification structure of employees in the company. Part of the questionnaire in each of the annual surveys is devoted to current topics. The basic population of the BIBB Establishment Panel consists of all enterprises with at least one employee subject to social insurance contributions. All branches of the economy are included with the exception of private households and extraterritorial organizations. The sample is based on the company file of the Federal Employment Agency. In principle, the panel is surveyed by means of computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPI). Alternatively, a self-completion questionnaire is offered to establishments that do not wish to conduct a face-to-face interview. In 2015, the self-completion questionnaire was used on paper, and since 2016 it has been used as an online questionnaire (CAWI). In 2016, an additional 3,500 or so establishments were interviewed by telephone (CATI) using a reduced questionnaire. Between 3,500 and 7,000 farm interviews are conducted annually. The annual survey wave is based on all panel-ready establishments from the previous wave plus an additional refresher sample. Vignette experiments have been used since the 2021 survey wave.
