Asset class education once again shows its independence against the influence of current capital markets movements: neither the recent developments regarding the situation of Greece’s national debt nor the oil-contaminated Gulf of Mexico is currently influencing the returns from previous investments in education. This was indicated by Career Concept AG in Munich today.

As the education fund pioneer points out, a correlation of asset class education with stocks, bonds or commodities is not plausible and thus hard to imagine - so that "investment in education" indeed provides an important contribution to the diversification and stabilization of well-managed asset portfolios. Furthermore, the returns of the asset class depend purely on the future income flows of the prospective graduates. "And they do not respond according to whether oil spills are expected to cause a rise in oil prices or because of continuing speculation concerning falling currency exchange rates," said board member Rolf C. CareerConcept Zipf. Even if the euro currency union would not continue in its present form because of the crisis in Greece, education fund investors would continue to receive a fixed percentage of future salaries - almost regardless of the currency. According to Zipf, a crash in the stock market would have no immediate impact on the earning development of graduates - at least, this is what the experience of recent years has highlighted.

If there was an aspect which could negatively affect the returns from education investments, it would be rising graduate unemployment. But, according to CareerConcept, this has been constant at under 5% for nearly 30 years and did not increase significantly in the last downturn.

CareerConcept (www.career-concept.de) is the "inventor" of privately financed education funds (www.bildungsfonds.de) - also known as study funds - in Germany. Companies, foundations and individual investors provide capital to fund their studies of the selected students. After the completion of studies and entering the work force, the funding recipients repay a portion of their income back into the education fund for the studies of the subsequent generation.  Unlike a student loan, there is no repayment obligation in cases of unemployment. CareerConcept works with several universities and colleges, supports thousands of students and is backed by premier investors who are committed to financial and economic return as well as academic education in Germany.

Information: CareerConcept AG, Lindwurmstr. 109, 80337 Munich, Tel.: 089 / 122800-80, Fax: 089 / 122800-87, E-Mail: info [AT] career - concept [dot] de, Web: www.career-concept.de, www.bildungsfonds.de, www.studienkredit.de, www.studienfinanzierung.de and www.bachelor-studium.org