The upskilling of technical workers is vital for companies in Europe striving to maintain or improve their competitive position. It is also a key part of the wider European agenda of facilitating learning and seeking to move towards a knowledge-based society. However, wishing for wider and deeper participation of workers in work-related learning is one thing – achieving it is much harder and needs to take account of the very different contexts and forms of upskilling that exist across Europe. The research reported here draws upon the findings of a six country Fifth Framework project investigation into the participation of technical workers in Continuing Vocational Education Training and Learning in England, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. The symposium is organized around two single country reports (from Greece and Italy) and two sets of paired comparisons (Spain and Portugal, and England and Germany) upon the participation of technical workers in continuing vocational education, training and learning.

Paper 1 (Figueira, Blázquez and Lucero)

highlights the importance of formal continuing vocational education and training in certain contexts and examines the factors affecting individual decisions upon whether or not to participate in such provision in Portugal and Spain.

Paper 2 (Kaminioti and Patinotis)

draws attention to how the participation of technical employees depends upon two broad factors: personal and organizational. The latter are particularly significant as most of the training in Greece is initiated by employers, but at very different rates in different organizational environments.

Paper 3 (Tomassini)

analyses how only real organisational settings can provide the conditions for effective learning in swiftly evolving environments in sectors such as radio and TV and software production in italy.

Paper 4 (Grollmann, Tutschner and Brown)

investigate the patterning of learning while working in the aeronautics sector in England and Germany, since problem-solving, troubleshooting under the use of expert systems etc. are core activities in typical aeronautics industry work settings.