Realising the potential of work-based learning schemes as a driver of productivity requires careful design and support. The length of work-based learning schemes should be adapted to the profile of productivity gains. A scheme that is too long for a given skill set might be unattractive for learners and waste public resources, but a scheme that is…

Continuous improvement are important for every company and hence also for employees. Depending on the field, being state of the art is an important issue (f.e. due to security reasons and regulations). In such cases, it is necessary that employees are proactive in training their competences and therefore ideally act independently. Not only…

This paper looks at the importance of mechanisms that give formal recognition to vocational skills acquired through work-based learning and how such mechanisms might be developed. It describes how skill recognition can benefit individuals, employers and society as a whole, and identifies in which contexts skill recognition has the highest…

Starting from the CVTS-2 survey in which responses by Austrian and French employers revealed their very limited use of "non-school" types of training (on-the-job training, self-learning, job rotation, apprenticeship and quality circles, etc.), the author searches for the reasons for these two European exceptions. Although certain…

The change-over to a knowledge and service society means greater opportunities for the highly skilled. Participation in tertiary education is increasing in all countries, and it can be seen that graduates are being absorbed into knowledge intensive services in the labour market. The international trend towards making vocational education and…