Meeting of Experts on Skills on Global Training Strategy TUAC – Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD Meeting of Experts on Skills on Global Training Strategy 15 – 17 March 2010 Turin, Italy Comments on “Priorities in training strategy“ by Roland Schneider, TUAC

TUAC – Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD Drafting a global training strategy is like entering 'Uncharted waters'

TUAC – Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD 173.000.000 for about strategy 843.000 for "effective strategy" 98.500 for "effective training strategy". (0,26 Seconds) 27.500 for "global training strategy". Gartner EXP Says Enterprises Must Have an Effective Training Strategy To Accelerate Growth and Innovation STAMFORD, Conn., May 9, 2006 Stop German Shepherd Aggression with Effective Training Strategy

TUAC – Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD Strategy refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal Strategy is distinct from tactics, which are concerned with the conduct of an engagement, while strategy is concerned with how different engagements are linked. That leads to two questions: 1) What is / are the objective(s)? 2) What actions need to be taken? What are the roles of training and skills within a framework for strong, sustainable and balanced growth?

TUAC – Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD A global training strategy must be both ambitious and challenging; it should facilitate the implementation of the Global Jobs Pact; address inequalities regarding access / participation in (continous) vocational training; help to close the low-skill, carbon-dependend approach and lift our economies to a high-skill, high wage and sustainable trajectory strengthen the responsibility of employers regarding the provision of (continous) vocational training; build and strengthen institutions necessary for the governance of VET systems (like Skills Councils) and involving employers and union reps.

TUAC – Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD Key issues to be taken into account by a global training strategy: Current skills and training policies trajectories won’t enable us to met the targets set by a framework for strong, sustainable and balanced growth The need to go beyond skills supply: Skills once created won’t automatically be utilised to productive effect; Skills are a ‘derived demand’ and driven by business need; thus firms’ product (services) market strategies and related approaches to the design of work systems and job asks are key determinants of human resources strategies

TUAC – Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD Training policies need to address a broad range of contextual factors that shape approaches to skill formation and usage within a particular (eco-)system, including Business settings (e.g. the type of product market, competitive strategies, business organisations /relations, financial system); Institutions and policy frameworks (VET and non- VET); Modes of engaging labour (e.g. labour hire); Structure of jobs (job design and work organisation); Level and type of skills formation (e.g. apprenticeships, informal on-the-job training) Thus, skills and training policies should be linked to innovation and industrial policies, the way to do that are publicly-funded workplace innovation programs For more details see Payne, Jonathan, Skill ecosystems: a new approach to vocational education and training policy, Cardiff University, SKOPE Issues Paper 14, 2007

TUAC – Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD There is a link between social protection and training Evidence suggests that a particular combination of employment protection and unemployment benefits determines to a large extent the profile of skills that is likely to emerge in an economy; Employment protection increases the propensity of both employers and workers to invest in firm-specific skills; Unemployment benefits facilitate investment in industry-specific skills;

TUAC – Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD Skills and training policies must not neglect the workplace and industrial relations context in which skills are created and mobilised; There is evidence suggesting that collective bargaining agreements on continuing vocational training (CVT) have a positive impact on the provision and access to CVT; The promotion of training and lifelong learning is climbing up on the trade union agenda (union learn http://www.unionlearn.org.uk/ )

TUAC – Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD

TUAC – Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD Share of companies in Europe with in-company training courses

TUAC – Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD Costs of company-based cvt as share of the total cost of labour

TUAC – Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD A training strategy based on the creation of ‘training markets’ in which decisions would be left to the discretion of employers and individuals is not going to work; Employers gain when workers train, thus an effective training strategy must address the funding of skills development, we need a non-bureaucratic and easily to administer a mandatory skills training levy which firms in part could claim back, provided they do train their workforce; an effective and successful skills and training strategy can’t avoid to interfere in areas of management prerogative and to refrain from substantive regulation of (labour) markets.

TUAC – Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD The skills of the workforce remain important, however, ….. Can we assume that the value of skills and knowledge (human capital) in advanced economies will continue to rise as globally operating companies (MNEs) are restructuring their operations in order to deliver innovative products at the lowest costs? What are the consequences if emerging economies are leapfrogging decades of technological progress in the advanced economies to compete increasingly for high-skilled work and high-value-adding production as well as for research and innovation?