Session Information
Contribution
The European Council launched in Mach 2000 what is widely known as "Lisbon Strategy" with the basic goal of "making the European Union the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy". Ever since that date, the focus has been mainly concentrated on promoting investment in education and training with an expected effective positive impact on innovation, growth and employment. This tendency of encouraging effective investment in human capital formation and development throughout life was confirmed by the European Commission's communication on "making a European area of lifelong learning a reality (EC, 2001). In this connection, active investment in promoting the effectiveness of the enterprises training market is considered as one of the basic means to secure effective structural, innovative adaptations and developments of skills and competence to keep pace with change and the requirements for the creation of competitive knowledge-based economy. In this context and within the framework of the final results of the empirical investigation of the project Leonardo CVTS2-revisited (2004-2007) survey, this paper gives an analytical insight into the observed structural and innovative developments and their implications within the enterprises training market in Europe with specific reference to the examples of seven EU countries investigated during the period 2005-2006, namely: Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Lithuania.The analysis undertaken in this paper is conducted consecutively throughout two main interrelated parts and a concluding section concerning the observed overall tendencies and their implications for policy recommendations and expected further related research developments in the future. The first part of the paper is an introductory section which provides an overall analytical overview of the structural characteristics of the enterprises training market (by types of providers, subjects of training and branches of activity) as observed at the end of the last decade by CVTS2 survey in 1999 covering about 76,000 enterprises in 25 EU countries (Eurostat Database, 1999-2000). The second basic part of the paper concentrates on giving some analytical insights into the structural and innovative developments and their policy implications within the enterprises training market as most recently observed by the Leonardo project CVTS2-revisited (2004-2007) investigation. It is a qualitative and quantitative field investigation, concerning the year 2005 conducted during 2005-2006 within 7 EU countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Lithuania). It is primarily based on qualitative face-to-face in depth interviews (140 with the enterprises and 70 with their training providers), then completed by 253 quantitative questionnaires-responses with different CVT suppliers. Both, the qualitative and quantitative components of this field investigation concern the CVT supply market structural functioning and development of its effectiveness in terms of relational interactivity of different CVT providers with the enterprises, their quality management standards and innovative capacity in training organisation and provision.The last section of the paper highlights some overall conclusions and implications obtained through the analysis of the results the investigation especially in its second part connected with the exploration of the most recent structural and innovative developments within the enterprises training market. It underlines mainly the following overall tendencies- Private providers continue to predominate in the enterprises training market followed far behind by public specialised institutions (including universities and colleges) and then the multiplier organisations (such as chambers of commerce, sector bodies and employer organisations). - Concerning their innovative development, training suppliers are increasingly diversifying their adapted supply and moving towards more tailor-made training offers with complementary accompaniments and services. Moreover, their relational interactivity with the enterprises is increasingly based on the development of cooperative networking and learning partnerships (on regional, national and international levels). - Compliance with quality management in training provision is increasingly becoming a normal feature for most of the training suppliers. This includes their increasing attachment to quality certification and the requirement of a relatively high level of qualifications and professionalism for the trainers. - The persistence of a certain number of constraints to these developments within the enterprises training market such as the budgetary constraints (amplified by the reduced public funding), the relatively high costs of tailor-made training (especially for SME's) and the omnipresence of legislation connected with regulating investment in training.BIBB ((2006): Synthesis Report on Training Providers, CVTS2-Revisited Survey, Germany, 2006. CVTS2-Revisited Survey (2006): National Reports on interviews with training providers (in Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Lithuania). CVTS2-Revisited Survey (2006): National Reports on interviews with the enterprises (in Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Lithuania). Dif, M. (2005): "On the effectiveness of CVT promotion measures within the enterprises in Europe", paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research "ECER 2004" (VETNET), organised by "The European Educational Research Association (EERA)", University of Dublin, Ireland, 7-10 September 2005, http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/143093.htm. Dif, M. (2000): "On the development of lifelong learning concept in a French context ", in "Lifelong Learning in Europe" Journal, Vol. V, Issue 1/2000, Finland, pp.23-30. CEDEFOP (1998a): Approaches and Obstacles to the Evaluation of Investment in Continuing Vocational Training: Discussion and Case Studies from Six Member States of the European Union, Thessaloniki: CEDEFOP. CEDEFOP (1998b): Exploring the Returns to Continuing Vocational Training in Enterprises: A Review of Research Within and Outside of the European Union, Thessaloniki: Panorama, CEDEFOP. European Commission (Ed.) (2002): Continuing vocational training survey (CVTS 2), European Social Statistics, Data 1999, Luxembourg, 2002 EC & Eurostat (2003): Continuing training in enterprises in Europe - Results of the second European Continuing Vocational Training Survey in enterprises (CVTS2). European Commission (2001): "Making a European Area of Lifelong Learning", Communication from the Commission, Brussels, Nov. http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/policies/lll/life/communication/com_en.pdf European Commission (1999): Continuing Training in Enterprises: facts and figures. Luxembourg: EC. European Commission (1996): White Paper on teaching and learning - towards the learning society, Brussels: European Commission Hansson, B., Johanson, U. and Leitner, K.-H. (2004): "The impact of human capital and human capital investments on company performance: Evidence from literature and European survey results", in Descy, P. and Tessaring, M. (eds): Impact of education and training, Third report on vocational training research in Europe: background report. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2004, Cedefop Reference series, 54. Markowitsch, Jörg; Hefler, Günter (2005): Training in Enterprises: Reasons and Influences.Developing a framework for explaining differences in performance of company based training in Europe. (working paper) with in the Leonardo da Vinci Project "CVTS revisited" (www.trainingineurope.com) OECD (1998): Human Capital Investment: an international comparison. Paris: OECD. OECD (2004): Education at a Glance, 2004, Paris. Philips, Jack J. (1997), Handbook of Training Evaluation and Measurement Methods, 3rd ed., Houston: Gulf. Westphalen, Sven-Åge (1999), "Continuing Vocational Training: from statistical necessity to analytical complexity", Journal of Vocational Education and Training, Issue 51.1.Additional Information Is your proposal part of a master or doctoral thesis? No Is your paper intended for publication?
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