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…

Over the past 15 years, the level of initial training among French youth has shown a rapid rise, with one of the highest rates of full-time school attendance in Europe. This sharp increase in school attendance clearly improves the training capital. In their hiring policies, employers have become more and more selective, with the result that…

This volume contains four studies covering various approaches and having different scopes for studying the problem of access to jobs and the role of education and training as criteria for recruitment. The first study, on the metropolitan area of Panama, covers all sectors of activity. It is based on a questionnaire administered to 80 companies to…