Commission staff working document
: THE ROLE OF SKILLS IN IMPROVING LABOUR MARKET MOBILITY
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- 2.1: GENERAL VS SPECIFIC COMPETENCES
- 2.2: TRANSFERABLE SKILL SETS
- 2.3: FUTURE SKILLS NEEDS
- 2.4: THE ROLE OF DIFFERENT ACTORS IN SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
- Skills development at enterprise level
- Public labour administration and placement offices
- Regional and local bodies
- The education sector
- Joined-up and coordinated approach required
2: THE ROLE OF SKILLS IN IMPROVING LABOUR MARKET MOBILITYAll economic sectors are currently in the throes of a phase of restructuring, which itself needs to be seen against a background of efforts to improve the EU’s competitiveness and re-direct the European economy towards fresh activities with a higher added value that are capable of generating new and better jobs. The success of these endeavours hinges on a more strategic management of human resources, with more dynamic and forward-looking interaction between labour supply and demand. This is essential to a cohesive society, to competitiveness, as well as to the capacity for innovation in the business sector and the economy as a whole. The level of skills achieved can be a key factor in determining how successful workers will be on the labour market. Knowledge, know-how and skills are decisive and condition everyone’s chances of a successful professional career and playing an active role in society. Keeping skills levels up to date is a key factor in ensuring the continuing employability of workers, particularly in times of restructuring, when workers may need to move companies or even sectors in the search for alternative employment. Employees therefore need to possess a set of skills that are easily transferable, which will equip companies with a more flexible, adaptable and mobile workforce, while at the same time facilitating worker mobility occupationally and geographically, making it easier for them to develop their occupational pathways. For workers, skills mean employability and occupational mobility. They are the best insurance against unemployment and are an important factor in facilitating personal development and active citizenship. However, labour markets — and the skills people need — are evolving ever faster and future jobs are likely to require higher levels and a different mix of skills, knowledge and qualifications. It will therefore be increasingly necessary for workers to participate in lifelong learning and to develop new skills in order to be able to adapt to a variety of tasks over their working lives. 2.1: GENERAL VS SPECIFIC COMPETENCESResults from a European Commission study on transferable skills45 show that general human capital/competences are those that increase the value of a person across the whole of the labour market, ie in companies, sectors and occupations. On the other hand, specific human capital/competences increase the value of a person only within the company in which they have acquired them; leaving the company therefore leads to devaluation of some specific human capital/competences since they do not apply in other companies, sectors and occupations. It should be noted, however, that the existence of purely general or purely specific forms of human capital/competences is very rare. It is usually possible to characterise human capital/competences as rather general or rather specific, which indicates some extent that there is a mixture of these two kinds of human capital/competences in the real-life economy. The characterisation of human capital/competences as general and specific, based on their application in the labour market, affects the willingness of various economic subjects, be they individuals or companies, to invest in their acquisition. The more general human capital/competences are, the more likely employees are to invest in acquiring them in order to increase their employability in other companies, occupations and sectors. Conversely, the more specific human capital/competences are, the less likely employees are to invest in acquiring them due to their narrow application; should workers leave a specific employer, these skills become less useful. For employers, the opposite applies: general human capital/competences increase the risk of losing the employee, while investing in the acquisition of specific human capital/competences ties the employee ever more closely to the company. At present, in addition to the interest shown in specific skills, attention is also focused on general skills — and mainly soft skills — due to their usability and transferability across occupations, sectors, and in some cases even across the whole economy. General skills that are applicable in most companies, occupations and sectors can be effectively applied in almost all jobs and in an employee’s personal life; thus they are perceived as highly transferable. Soft skills — job non-specific skills that are related to individual ability to operate effectively in the workplace — are usually described as extremely transferable. Specific skills — technical and job-specific abilities that are applicable in very small number of companies, occupations and sectors — can be specified negatively as skills not belonging among generic skills. They describe special attributes for performing an occupation in practice and are constituted as a mix of knowledge and abilities used during the practical process. Box 2.1 below sets out the main soft and general skills.
2.2: TRANSFERABLE SKILL SETSKnowledge of a set of skills that can be used between sectors or groups of sectors enables effective job change during an individual’s working life. Finding the most suitable occupation, where the worker can make the most of their present skills, not only minimises any loss of qualifications due to a change in job, but also reduces the costs for training of new employees and the time necessary for handling tasks connected with the new occupation. This also offers the best alternative opportunities for the worker. The more skills are identified for each pair of occupations as common, the higher the transferability, and vice versa. This knowledge is very useful for the facilitation of occupational mobility in general and in particular during restructuring processes, which has a substantial impact on both the speed of restructuring processes and level of unemployment. The comparison of key occupations in terms of their skills transferability allows possible shifts in sectoral employment to be highlighted. Combining information on transferable skills with the skills profile of the new occupation helps identify what kind of re-skilling or upskilling is necessary to achieve a smooth transition for those made redundant. Box 2.2 below examines skills that can be transferred between different groups of sectors.
2.3: FUTURE SKILLS NEEDSFuture skills that are adapted to the evolution of the labour market needs also play an important role in the employability of workers. ICT skills rank in first place because technological development will allow workers to use them efficiently in a growing number of occupations, tasks and areas. Further, the number of occupations that will require advanced ICT user knowledge is set to grow. Skills linked to specific technology (such as specialised skills in chemistry, biology, electronics, or skills in the field of nanotechnology) will be increasingly important, but for a relatively smaller group of expert occupations. Environmental technologies will trigger growth in demand for skills in that area. Other identified future trends include business and management skills, including in middle- and low-level occupations. This will be linked to a growing need for inter-sectoral knowledge. For example, to know how the product the worker develops or produces will be used by the user helps them to identify possible innovations. This is also the case concerning knowledge of the previous and succeeding parts of the production/development process, which will boost efficiency and innovation potential. Language and cross-cultural requirements, process management, skills related to the trend of teleworking (autonomy, ability to work and solve problems independently), and moral values such as ethics and loyalty will increase in importance. 2.4: THE ROLE OF DIFFERENT ACTORS IN SKILLS DEVELOPMENTThe importance of workers’ general, specific and soft skills among different occupations, groups of sectors and their contribution both to the quality of work at microeconomic level and the effective functioning of the labour market at microeconomic level have been stressed often and in different contexts by the business sector, employers’ and workers’ representatives, academic institutions, policy makers and other key players on several occasions. Skills development at enterprise levelCompanies differ in the complexity of their approach to the acquisition, development and assessment of specific skills. In general, it is possible to identify two types of enterprises: those that have sophisticated and well-designed models (this is developed in a systematic manner, especially in large and medium-sized companies with human resources departments or at least a human resources specialist); and those that carry out these activities intuitively on the basis of ad hoc solutions or through experience on the job (especially in small companies). The most frequently used tools for recognition and assessment of skills are periodical employee appraisal, feedback and 360-degree assessment, balanced scorecard, competency-based performance review or behavioural event interview and quality control circles. Specific skills are often developed by learning-by-doing, which is usually supported by other tools, such as review, coaching, and simulations of job tasks. Mentoring is very common in this process. This elementary form of skills development is often accompanied by targeted education/training, which can be internal (in the enterprise) or external (undertaken by an external body) and take different forms, for example education, training, workshops, seminars, conferences, meetings and solving concrete tasks by brainstorming or case studies. Enterprise initiatives for the recognition, development and assessment of general and soft skills are mostly rare, even though they can play a role in the employee selection process. The cost of this investment can be carried by large and medium-sized companies, whose strategy also relies on lucrative internal labour markets. Even in this case, large companies are often ambivalent towards a systematic acquisition of general and soft skills. On the one hand, they understand that these skills can improve work efficiency, which benefits the company as a whole. On the other hand, such systematic training promotes willingness to leave on the part of the employee, which the company does not want. Against this background, acquisition of these skills is often performed in a muted way, with targeted employees but not throughout the whole organisation. Regarding employability, it is important to mention that employers’ requirements grow over time. Today, an applicant for a job must be much better prepared and comply with the job description more fully than a few years ago; many employers are less willing to invest in up-skilling new staff. Therefore, individuals as well as the education and public sector must pay more attention to the skills they have, and train or support as necessary. Public labour administration and placement officesPublic labour administrations and placement offices possess tools to assess and conduct targeted training, which also aim to meet the needs of companies. Many labour administrations develop profile documents with their clients in order to represent their skills profile. This is sensible and necessary as this clientele is a target group with little or no formal qualifications that they can present to a prospective employer. Particular groups that are in focus for the development of general and soft skills are young people, older unemployed people and migrants, which are three groups with specific problems in entering the labour market. Acquiring skills sets increases and updates their employability. The task of the public sector is to increase or at least maintain employment, which can be guaranteed by the development of skills. Many public sector representatives are aware that the importance of employers in the further training of the labour force is essential as well as the fact that they have to motivate employers (for example financially) to provide training in areas that can help people to increase their long-term employability. Regional and local bodiesIt is the responsibility of regional administrative bodies to raise awareness of the need to acquire, develop and certify transferable skills. They approach firms, trade unions, labour administration bodies, placement offices and professional associations in order to raise general awareness. Their activities can also include labour market monitoring activities, which in the best cases give a detailed picture of regionally available human resources and also of the associated strengths and shortages concerning skills. However, very often their strategies lack a systematic approach and are in some cases limited to model projects. Besides enterprises, regional and local players are probably the second most important actors when it comes to labour market initiatives relevant to the transferability of skills. The main reason for this is the prevailing regional and local mobility of the workforce in EU Member States and, next to this, regional and local competence to develop partnerships of key players to deal with complex labour market issues. Regional and local partnerships for the labour market are therefore very useful strategic tools for efficient interventions on the labour market. The education sectorEducation sector representatives acknowledge that they also carry significant responsibility in this field, whether at the initial education stage or through further continuous education and training. Universities and education providers should be aware of developments in the labour market and periodically evaluate their training provision so that they can better accommodate the evolving needs of specific occupations. Workers are liable to change their field of work ever more often, and restructuring processes are underway within companies as well as whole economies. Upskilling and re-skilling is in ever-greater demand, and the importance of specific but also general and soft skills is gaining an ever-higher profile. In this context, the role of the education and training system is seen as pivotal. It gives a wide range of people a good chance to acquire all kinds of necessary skills or adapt previously acquired skills to a changing situation. Many models are used to support occupational mobility through skills development, such as the identification of skills gaps for new jobs, career counselling, the development of skills through training for workers who have been made redundant, many of them based on local skills needs. Education and training providers see learning-by-doing as a crucial method of skills development, which can be supported by other relevant tools, such as workshops, seminars, conferences, coaching, distance learning, blended learning, e-learning, consulting, observation and review of work by expert or peer, sharing of experiences, skills and knowledge, training courses with certificate, team discussions etc. Further, the representatives of educational institutions believe in particular that the adaptation of educational activities to the needs of students and labour market demands is very important in terms of developing skills in relation to occupational mobility. Besides practical skills, particular skills and knowledge with a wider application in more jobs and skills need to be simultaneously developed. Developing abilities and competences should be a lifelong process for which people are sufficiently motivated and the results are officially recognised. At national level, there is a division of competences between public institutions responsible for education and for employability. Sometimes this can result in competing/counteracting systems and methods for identifying, assessing and recognising non-formal learning. Their goal is mostly the same: rendering the system of vocational education and training more flexible and inclusive by recognising alternative paths of knowledge and skill acquisition and relating them to the needs of the labour markets and employers. These latter needs are met through the profiling tool which most labour placement offices use in order to determine the existing skills of a person and the possible career paths. Based on that, they offer advice to individuals as to the best ways of reaching an employment in an area where their strengths lie. Joined-up and coordinated approach requiredGlobal economic competitiveness depends on high levels of knowledge and skills which in turn lead to quality jobs and decent wages. This is why governments strive to attract talent and provide skills upgrading opportunities for people on all levels. However, this important task cannot be achieved by one single actor. Working on skills development requires a joined-up approach between education, training, employment and economic development policies. It also means working closely with local industry to make sure that skills provision is adapted to ever-evolving business needs. And it needs to involve community and civil society organisations to ensure that all can participate in enhanced prosperity. The EU institutions can also play an important role in skills development and therefore in the next section of this chapter, a range of EU initiatives in the area of skills and competence development are explored. Directory: pub -> ECD ECD -> Commission staff working document ECD -> Table of contents I instruments Error: Reference source not found ECD -> Table of annexes annex I: Glossary 4 ECD -> En commission of the european communities brussels, 12. 12. 2008 com(2008) 853 final annex annex II to VIII ECD -> Report from the commission to the european parliament and the council european community safa programme aggregated information report ECD -> Report from the commission european community safa programme ECD -> Commission of the european communities brussels, 24 2008 ECD -> Commission staff working document ECD -> Communication from the commission to the european parliament, the council, the european economic and social committee and the committee of the regions ECD -> Annex I iccat species Download 1.43 Mb. Share with your friends:
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