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Dear collegues, dear visitors to the VETNET site,

The VETNET research network under ECER has been developing the web site as a facilty of ECER participants. For ECER 2007 at Ghent University, our colleagues at KnowNet have upgraded and improved the function of the site. Please make use of the services.

All participants of VETNET can - and should - have their papers made available from the site, as well as in the conference proceedings. Please send your written contributions (4 to 10 pages) to Mr. Christian Rose: cvrose@uni-bremen.de within the next days. This makes it possible to prepare conference proceeding before the conference, and allows others to inform themselves for the sessions forthcoming next week at Ghent.

Please make active use of this possibilty!

Kind regards and see you in Ghent

The younger worker, (broadly defined as being aged between 16-24) occupies a unique place in national labour markets and in firms’ employment and training systems. Their role is both changing and increasing in importance in the light of shifts in environmental conditions, such as globalisation, a growing role for international HR collaborations, demographic shifts, skill shortages, changing linkages between national training and education systems, the emerging pensions crisis, the evolving role of state and voluntary agencies in the labour market, new employment laws both at national and international level the emergence of new ideas of competency and their measurement, the emerging role of community HR, and the rise of diversity management

Despite this, the HR issues associated with the recruitment, training and employment of the younger worker have been neglected both in HR theory and practice. Articles are invited which address this gap. Papers can be of a theoretical or empirical nature, or investigate practical concerns. They can be drawn from any research tradition; contributions of both a quantitative and qualitative nature are invited. Papers offering comparative international perspectives will be particularly welcome. Topic could include:

• The recruitment and socialisation of younger workers
• Globalisation and the younger worker
• New VET and competence accreditation systems at industry, national and international level including changing models of apprenticeship
• Trades unions, workplace representation and the younger worker
• Diversity management and the younger worker
• The role of state and voluntary agencies in the youth labour market
• Community HR projects and the younger worker
• Performance and reward management issues.

Enquiries, expressions of interest and submission of abstracts (500 words maximum) should be sent to any of the Guest Editors shown at the address below. Abstracts should arrive by 1 October, 2005. Completed articles of between 5,000 - 8,000 words should be submitted in triplicate by 1 April, 2006 at the latest for review. Articles will be double-blind reviewed. The issue will be published in the end of 2007

Guest Editors

Associate Professor Dr. Hedley Malloch,
IESEG School of Management,
Catholic University of Lille,
3 rue de la Digue,
F-59000 Lille,
France.
Tel: +33/320-545-892;
Fax +33/320-574-855
Email: h.malloch@ieseg.fr

Assistant Professor Dr. Birigt Kleymann,
IESEG School of Management,
Catholic University of Lille,
3 rue de la Digue,
F-59000 Lille,
France.
Tel: +33/320-545-892;
Fax +33/320-574-855
Email : b.kleymann@ieseg.fr

Assisant Professor Jacques Angot,
IESEG School of Management,
Catholic University of Lille,
3 rue de la Digue,
F-59000 Lille,
France.
Tel: +33/320-545-892;
Fax +33/320-574-855
Email : j.angot@ieseg;fr

We've just made a fairly big upgrade in the way the VETNET site supports comments and discussion. Many members were having a hard time participating because they could not create their own discussions or add links and attachments to their comments.

As the first part of a drive to enhance the interactivity and community-building features of the VETNET site, we've added shared weblogs:

VET-NET Site Comments

This is a place for comments and discussion about the VETNET site by its members. Everyone who is logged in can add comments and participate in discussions. Comments that members add using the 'Add a comment' button in the site's pages will be posted as an entry to this shared weblog.

VET Talk

This is a group discussion area in which members of the VETNET site can create and participate in discussions about the issues that concern them. All members can post here and participate in any discussions.  This is a really good place to start if you want to pose a question or start a discussion of your own.  Please don't be inhibited, all contributions welcome.

VETNET Site News

This is for news about the VETNET site. Members of the editorial team can post to this weblog. All members of the site can participate in discussions of entries there.

Note that the 'Add a comment' feature is now also based on the weblogs. Adding a comment anywhere on the site automatically posts a new entry to 'VET-NET Site Comments', which includes a link back to the page that the comment is about. Because of a little piece of internet magic called ' trackback', the pages can display the title and lead-in (summary) for any weblog entry or discussion item which includes a link to it. This is true even if the weblog entry is on another site. (for an example, see this article by Alan Brown )

We will be posting additional materials explaining how to use the new features, and giving some hints about powerful new tools that can be used to track the content of the site and to add your own content. Watch this space!