Consumer education is a relevant consumer political tool to enhance the consumers’ position within the market. The goal of consumer education is to enable consumers to make self-determined and responsible consumer decisions. In 2011, the Bavarian Ministry for Environment and Consumer Protection established the initiative for consumer education Bavaria. The aim of the initiative was to further institutionalize consumer education and to educate the broad population and especially vulnerable groups about every day consumer matters. The initiative focuses on finances, the digital world, and sustainable consumption.
From October 2016 to October 2017, a first evaluation study regarding the development of the initiative was conducted and strategic as well as operative goals to further develop the initiative were defined. Based on this first evaluation, ConPolicy ran another evaluation study to investigate if the deducted goals were reached and to work out further opportunities of development. The study focused on topics like network development and development of the educational offer, quality assurance, digitalization of consumer education, and marketing.
To conduct the evaluation study, quantitative (online surveys) as well as qualitative research methods (expert interviews and focus groups) with different stakeholders of the initiative were conducted. Based on the research results, the status quo of goal achievement was investigated and further recommendations of action for the next project phase of the initiative were developed.