To keep pace with changing skills, today's industrial workers are in need of three distinct kinds of competencies: vocational, technical, and multifunctional. France has chosen to focus on technical skills and upgrade the level of vocational education. All three skills are necessary to production, and no one is more important than the other. This…

Major British, French, and German industrial companies are increasingly recruiting higher education graduates (HEGs) for middle management posts, traditionally filled through promotion of operatives. This new form of recruitment does not occur on the same scale or at the same rate in all the companies using it, and it is closely tied to the…