Chair: Ludger Deitmer, University of Bremen, ITB

Discussant: Pekka Kämäräinen, University of Bremen, ITB

Does Training Supply Create its Demand? - Exploring National Training Supplier Markets' Influences on Enterprises' Training Policies in Europe

Description of the symposium:

Further continuing vocational education and training within the enterprises is one of the major parts of life long learning activities. According to the results of the Continuing Vocational Training Survey (CVTS II) the average enterprises' training performance is rather different throughout Europe. Little is known about the national backgrounds of the different training behaviours of enterprises.

The project "Country specific thematic analysis of continuous vocational training on the basis of CVTS II and modelling of CVT-structures (CVTS2-revisited: 2004-2007)"?, financed by the European Commission within the Leonardo Da Vinci Programme, has the basic goal of examining the influences of different national backgrounds on the enterprises' training policies (www.trainingineurope.com). Among the topics explored are the influences of national education systems, labour market structures, innovation activities and existing schemes to foster company training in the seven partner countries of the consortium (Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Lithuania). One major topic is also to explore the influence of national training provider markets on the average training performance of companies.

Enterprises rely heavily on the training offers provided on national training market levels. So far little research has been conducted on the interrelationship between enterprises' training activities and structures within national training supplier markets using a comparative approach.

Within this symposium, three papers are presented to explore this interrelationship. The first paper deals with general structures of the training supply as explored by CVTS and findings of a survey on training providers in the seven partner countries ("Investigating the Training Supply Market for Enterprises in Europe", presented by M'Hamed Dif). The second paper explores differences in price levels for selected trainings offers and asks the question: to what extent prices for training offers may influence companies' training decisions ("Do training prices matter? Analysing the influence of national training markets on the training performance of enterprises in seven European countries", presented by Gunter Hefler and Jorg Markowitsch). The third paper explores the cooperation between training providers and companies, making use of expert interviews with both, experts in institutions of adult education and in enterprises providing training ("How do enterprises co-operate with institutions of adult education in the field of continuing vocational training?", presented by Bernd Kaepplinger).

Methodology (investigation steps and sources):

All papers make use of resources being developed within phase 1 and phase 2 of the research project "Country specific thematic analysis of continuous vocational training on the basis of CVTS II and modelling of CVT-structures (CVTS2-revisited: 2004-2007)".

Beside the data from CVTS II, the following resources are established and used within the research project and as a basis of the three presentations:

• - 70 face-to-face interviews with training and human resources managers within different training
• providers in the seven partner countries concerned by the investigation.
• - 210 questionnaire-responses from different training supplier organisations in the seven investigated
• countries.
• - An experimental price survey on selected training offers.
• - 140 interviews with experts responsible for training within the enterprises in the project partner
• countries.

Conclusions and findings:

The interrelation between national training markets and enterprises training performance is a major research domain that still not well elaborated so far.

In this perspective, the three symposium papers are expected:

• firstly, to investigate and evaluate the differences between the training markets in the seven partner countries. This includes, discussing some of the related issues connected with constraints and restrictions on information availability.
• Secondly, to explore the question "if and to what extent the identified features of national training markets are likely to influence the average training performance of enterprises in the seven partner countries?"
• Thirdly, to give (at this stage of project implementation) some input elements for further future research activities.

References ( Basic preliminary references ):

• Bassanini, Andrea P., Alison L. Booth, Giorgio Brunello, Maria De Paola und Edwin Leuven, (2005): Workplace training in Europe, IZA Discussion Paper No. 1640, June 2005
• Behringer, F. &Kaepplinger, B (2005): Enterprise-provided Training and its National Context: Towards an Explanatory Model. Paper presented at ECER 2005 in Dublin.
• Dif, M. (2005): "On the effectiveness of CVT promotion measures within the enterprises in Europe", paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research "ECER 2004" (VETNET), organised by "The European Educational Research Association (EERA)", University of Dublin, Ireland, 7-10 September 2005, http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/143093.htm.
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Investigating the Training Supply Market for Enterprises in Europe

M'Hamed Dif, University Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg

Do Training Prices Matter? - Analysing the Influence of National Training Markets on the Training Performance of Enterprises in Seven European Countries.

Gunter Hefler & Jorg Markowitsch, 3s Research Laboratory

How do Enterprises Co-operate with Institutions of Adult Education in the Field of Continuing Vocational Training?

Bernd Kaepplinger, Bundesinstitut fur Berufsbildung