Return on Courses for the Functionally Illiterate

The return on six-month courses for the functionally illiterate is over 1,000 euros per student: the benefit amounts to 3,000 euros and the cost 2,000 euros. The majority of the benefit consists of a health benefit and higher productivity and is enjoyed by the participants.

Every year some 10,000 functional illiterates take a course, with approximately 6,000 of them completing it. This yields a net benefit of 6 million euros. If all 1.1 million functional illiterates between the ages of 15 and 65 were to take a course with the same outcome as that of current students this would yield a return to society of 700 million euros.