Comparison of company practices regarding continuing training of employees shows great diversity among the 15 European Union member states. In 11 countries, over 70 percent of companies are "training involved" (TICs). South European countries have a low percentage of TICs; the proportion of TICs in north European countries is over 80 percent. The proportion of companies offering training sessions is greater than that of those offering less formal training. As to formal training sessions, four groups of countries are distinguished in terms of employees' rates of access, average length of sessions, company size, percentage of companies conducting such sessions, company financial participation, and cost of training per trainee. The percentage of employees participating in a training session varies by proportion of TICs in the country. Comparing training session length with proportion of TICs, in countries with little training, average length of sessions is rather long, which is to the detriment of access; in TICs, rate of access is high but training is of short duration. With regard to other forms of training, three groups of countries emerge. In Denmark and Finland, self-training, lectures, and workshops play an important role. Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands mainly use inservice training. Ireland, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, and Sweden show greater recourse to job rotation. The conclusion is that a European approach to lifelong learning remains to be created. (YLB)