FUTURISME
Future of Social Dialogue in SMEs
Adaptability and Employability
Discussion Papers on Training
A project of UEAPME co-financed by the
European Commission – European Social Fund
EUROPEAN UNION
European Social Fund
Article 6 Innovative Measures
List of Contents
1.
Target Groups
3
2. SMEs and investment in human capital
3.
6
Adapting continuous training to the changing demands
of the labour market
9
4. The Financing of the Continuous Training:
difficulties of access for small and medium-sized companies
12
5. Fitting the formal training offer to the needs of SMEs
16
The Discussion Papers have been produced by experts of UEAPME organisations,
national member organisations of UEAPME participating in the Focus Groups and the
Avignon Academy. They deal with the current concerns of SMEs in the areas of
Employment and Wage Policy, Labour Market and Social Policies and Training, at
national level as well as European level. They are presented and evaluated in the Focus
Groups and are an input into the seminars. Therefore, these Discussion Papers are not the
official position of UEAPME or any of its member organisations, but a contribution to
further discussions on these items.
The contents of this publication reflect the views of the partners in the Futurisme II
project. The European Commission is not liable for any use that may be made thereof.
2
Winning New Target Groups
1.
Introduction
The ageing of the working population combined with the decreasing number of
secondary school graduates will lead to a severe lack of young job starters
throughout Europe, starting already in the coming years but with a major impact
from 2010 onwards.
The active population in most Member States will continue to rise until 2010. Then
there will be a decline during the period from 2010-2025, with the exception of
Ireland where the labour force should stay at the same level, Portugal (+1.0% over
the period), Sweden (+1.3%) and Luxembourg (+4.6%). The sharpest fall over the
2010-2025 period should be recorded in Italy (-7.5%), Germany and Spain (-6.6%
for both).
The non-working part of the population can be divided into three groups: young
persons (up to the age of 19), the working-age population (between 20 and 59 years
of age) who do not participate in the labour force (students, disabled people, early
retired people…) and older persons (60 years and over). Until 1995, the non-working
population consisted mainly of young people. This is going to change in the future
with the number of young people decreasing due to lower fertility rates, while the
senior group will increase. Especially after 2010, the ageing of the post-war ‘babyboom’ generation will cause a sharply increasing flow of people leaving the labour
market.
The demographic developments present a number of challenges affecting in
particular small enterprises and the skilled crafts sector. Shortage of skilled labour is
already now one of the major problems for SMEs and in particular small enterprises.
Therefore it will be necessary to rethink strategies on qualifying and recruiting, and
to initiate a new campaign on the need for skills and qualifications and to reach both
conventional and new target groups.
2.
Specific Recruiting Problems in the Skilled Crafts Sector
The changes in vocational requirements and demography will have different
effects/impacts on every part of the economy. There is a notable increase in vacant
training places within the skilled crafts sector, although the demographic change will
start to be relevant in some five years time from now. SMEs and craft companies,
their representative organisations, i.e. chambers, and sectoral organisations, as well
as trade unions, need to work together to find measures to counteract the lack of
skilled workforce with combined forces.
Higher standards of vocational skills, the lack of people who are willing to take over
a business, as well as the growing need for middle-management personnel in
medium-sized businesses, demand well trained and competent ‘high potential’
secondary school graduates: These young people must be attracted to SMEs by offers
3
of training places and interesting career paths. This new strategy does not imply
turning one’s back on the skilled crafts tradition of also taking care of the less
successful school-leavers.
3.
Necessary Steps
Competing for ‘High Potentials’
The skilled crafts and SME sector could be made more attractive for highly capable
youngsters through a media and public relations campaign. The public image and
reputation of many occupations could thus be improved, also by indicating career
paths. Especially (A-level) high school graduates are usually unaware of the great
variety of existing career options, ranging from management positions to running
their own business. Furthermore, there are a great variety of additional training
courses accompanying regular vocational training.
Modular further and advanced training courses, as well as university studies for
middle management, master craftsman and beyond, contribute to the training variety
within the skilled crafts sector.
Along with the 'high potentials', SMEs also need to target women and foreign skilled
workers. The increasing content of customer orientation and information technology,
as well as flexible choices of work place and work schedules, can be used to
encourage more women to choose technical occupations. Migrants also belong to the
target groups that should be part of the recruitment strategy.
Supporting the Disadvantaged
School graduates who can be trained successfully through product-oriented and
service-related processes find easy access to working life. The skilled craft
occupations and the service sector have this product-oriented and service-related
character. For some countries the results of the PISA-Survey (Programme for
International Student Assessment), as well as the high number of drop-outs and exam
failures, have demonstrated the great deficiencies in special learning support in
school and in pre-school. It is therefore an absolute necessity and logical
consequence for the SME and skilled crafts sector to be active in these education and
training fields and to press for reforms.
But the SMEs and skilled crafts sector can have its own successful impact when
focussing on its own direct fields of action: it can contribute to occupational
orientation, to orientation for career start choices (selecting process), it offers
effective preparation of disadvantaged youngsters for and within an apprenticeship.
Among the examples of ‘good practice’ for special training and support of
disadvantaged students are the following:
4
 Internships, guaranteeing regular and long-term company contacts.
 Practical training oriented courses for the preparation of trainees with severe
learning difficulties; these courses impart standardised, labour market approved
modules as parts of the standardised vocational training curricula.
 Accompanying training measures and support (special training courses, social
integration).
 Developing social skills and social competence within the vocational training
course at the vocational training centre, if in-company training proves to be
inefficient.
In general, the SMEs and skilled crafts sector could also be instrumental in training
and educating young people who have already passed the average age for initial
training or apprenticeship but without basic vocational qualifications or skills.
Individual vocational training modules for young adults which build upon priorlearning skills are one model which could be used. These skills and modules can then
be formally recognised through external exams involving the social partners.
Upgrading Prospects For Older Employees
The European lifelong learning initiative as well as the foreseeable declining number
of young skilled workers call for a refocus and concentration of efforts also on the
older workforce. Entrepreneurs/business owners continue working into their high
seventies, whereas employees (company staff) tend to retire even before the statutory
retirement age which in Germany is 65. Only 38% of the 55-64 year-olds still belong
to the active workforce.
Therefore, all efforts have to be made to keep the older workforce in employment
and to extend the working-life period in general. These efforts should comprise
strategies to improve health policy as well as adequate working conditions and
arrangements. In order to cope with the new challenges, older employees need to
update their skills constantly. Studies (e.g. about older employees in the German
building and construction industry) have shown that health and age-related
occupational changes can only be implemented through intensive accompanying
training measures. More public funding should be provided for further training of the
older workforce in SMEs. Germany has already passed a specific law ('Job-AktivGesetz') to support the training of employees over 50 years old in companies with up
to 100 employees.
In addition, the older workforce should be more highly regarded both by companies
and business owners and by younger workers: on the one hand, older workers have
to be motivated and enabled to develop their skills and competencies throughout life,
but on the other hand, they are a very valuable source of knowledge and experience
to companies. In the SME and Skilled Crafts sector, it is especially this intergeneration transfer of knowledge with its specific demand for complex and
comprehensive qualifications that should be better organised and promoted.
5
SMEs and Investment in Human Capital
1. Background
The issue of investment in human capital must be seen in the context of a number of
important factors connected with the new economy:
 Europeanisation and/or globalisation not only affects large enterprises, but is also
of increasing importance for small and medium sized enterprises. Although only
20 % of SMEs on average are engaged in exports, 46 % of medium-sized
enterprises export and around half of them have international business contacts
(Observatory of European SMEs 2002, No 2). SMEs are facing increased
competition both from domestic and foreign enterprises. Therefore enterprises
have to invest in human capital to cope with competition on the open market.
 Another reason is without doubt the rapid technical/scientific progress in many
areas and the need for changes in necessary skills and knowledge.
 A third component is the demographic situation. All over Europe we see a decline
in birth rates, the population is ageing and the post war baby-boom generation is
going into retirement. This means that in the coming years the labour force will
decrease. Especially after 2010 there will be a sharp increase in people leaving the
labour market. This means that competition for labour will increase and
enterprises cannot be certain of getting the necessary knowledge through hiring
young persons leaving school. There will simply not be enough of them. On the
other hand, the knowledge and competencies acquired in the initial school system
are not enough for enterprises without further training efforts.
These three factors: globalisation/Europeanisation, scientific and technical progress,
and demography are clearly forcing enterprises to be active in creating and
developing their "human capital".
Special situation of SMEs:
Even if the situation of small and medium sized enterprises is different to that of
larger enterprises, the key problem is that human capital has "feet", in other words,
unlike investment in capital and in machinery, when investing in human capital the
enterprise cannot be sure that the investment will stay and give a sufficient return on
the investment. In large enterprises there are more career opportunities and more
possibilities to satisfy the wishes for advancement, new posts, etc. Large enterprises
can very often offer successful apprentices employment, careers and professional
development. Small and medium sized enterprises rarely have these possibilities and
are therefore quite often less attractive for accomplished young people in comparison
to large enterprises.
Small (micro) enterprises can sometimes rely on the fact that they work in a special
regional environment within which they are relatively protected from competition.
This situation will change in the foreseeable future, but nevertheless, at present these
enterprises see less necessity to invest in human capital than others who are already
exposed to competition.
2.
Initial training in co-operation with enterprises
SMEs have a long tradition of participation in vocational training, on-the job training
and apprenticeship. In some European countries (e.g. Germany, Austria,
Luxembourg,) there is a strong tradition of apprenticeship training by enterprises.
But systems vary within the European Union. In Member States where the
apprenticeship training system is less developed, or does not exist, enterprises rely on
professional training taking place in schools and training centres. Where this is the
case, enterprises sometimes co-operate with the school system (e.g. in offering shortterm training, holiday jobs, training for teachers in professional subjects). Dual
systems where training institutes and enterprises co-operate in training improves both
practical and theoretical skills, and gives the individual better opportunities on the
labour market.
When the initial school system is too separated from the needs of the economy,
enterprises have to cope with longer periods of initial training for school leavers. In
the end, even if there are systems - whether apprenticeships, professional training in
schools/training centres in co-operation with enterprises or a system quite distant
from the needs of the economy - enterprises are still forced to invest in the
knowledge and the skills of their future workers, either as part of initial training or at
the beginning of working life.
If small and medium sized enterprises do not participate in training activities, they
will undoubtedly be less attractive in the labour market which will become a big
problem when shortage of labour becomes a reality.
3.
Further training - a necessity
The development of the economy points clearly towards the necessity for more
investment in further training. This investment has to be made jointly by the
employer and the employee, but it is also the responsibility of society. Further
training linked to the work situation is the responsibility of enterprises. If this is not
the case, the responsibility is with the employee and/or society. It is important that
when further training is planned or undertaken, the needs of the employer or the
manager of the enterprise should also be included.
As mentioned above, investment in human capital is not stable. Small enterprises
cannot easily afford to invest in it without being certain of a return on the investment.
It is very difficult to keep an employee who wants to leave a company or to demand
the re-payment of a financed course. Therefore, since competence development is
necessary for the economy as well as for the enterprise, it is necessary to find a
solution where the whole of society takes part in financing the necessary upgrading
of the workforce, e.g. through tax incentives, so that it will also be affordable for
SMEs.
7
For small enterprises it can be very difficult to send one employee to attend a course,
because in a small enterprise with few employees no one is easily replaceable.
Therefore a policy for developing skills and acquiring new competence through
lifelong learning needs not only to look at the financing but also at the organisation
of courses: courses should be offered when there is free-time for the employee and/or
the employer, weekend courses, evening courses, courses using the new media (ICT,
e-learning).
A very large amount of further training consists of informal learning which means
learning by doing. Learning in the workplace is very often underestimated if not
invisible, especially in official statistics. It is of utmost importance to make this
component visible, and to find methods to take it into account, for example when
someone is re-entering formal training (e.g. at schools, universities, polytechnics).
4.
The need to motivate
Motivation for further training is important and has to be pushed. Most people are
not eager to go into further training if it is not gratified by better payment, better
career possibilities etc. In a learning society, further training must become a
normality. Therefore we need intrinsic motivation to replace the prevailing extrinsic
motivation. This is a task for employers' organisations as well as for unions, for
politicians, and for the whole of society. We must promote the idea of lifelong
learning, and this must start in early days at schools.
The school system has a very important responsibility to promote learning
motivation, which is nowadays not always the case.
5.
Summary
It is necessary for all enterprises, large or small, to invest in
training/qualification/skills. The European workforce must become a learning
workforce to cope with international competition. This might seem less important for
SMEs, but this is a very short-sighted reflection. In the long run all enterprises will
face this situation and have to respond to it.
Society has a very important responsibility in this context: tax incentives can make
things easier, motivation has to be built up from the early days of schooling,
enterprises must become confident that their investment in human capital is not
fading or leaving without return on investment.
Improved and new skills and competencies are a shared responsibility between the
government, social partners, enterprises and individuals. The need for skilled labour
in small enterprises must be taken into consideration at all levels of decision making,
especially since small enterprises are not always represented by the social partners at
national level. Different factors such as the technological, economic and
demographic revolution underline the necessity for action.
8
Adapting continuous training to the changing demands of the
Labour Market
1.
Description of the general problem: Globalisation
Globalisation has made the economic process into a world-wide game, by which
changes on the other side of the world have an influence on the economic features of
the native country. Globalisation also increases the pressures on working people:
they have to be far more flexible and mobile.
Consequently globalisation will create two main streams in training needs:
 the need to anticipate upcoming changes from all over the world,
 the need to be able to perform in the global economy with increasing requirements
for example concerning knowledge of languages, intercultural competencies, etc.
2.
Technological changes
Many branches are confronted with technological changes which happen in quick
succession. The development of new technologies increases the pace of introduction
of new machines and the introduction of new technologies in society at large.
However not all sectors have to deal with the same pace of technological changes: in
many handicraft professions (e.g. bakery) technological change is less prominent
than for example in the communication sector.
Concerning training needs coming out of technological changes again, there are two
main challenges:
 on the one hand workers in sectors subject to technological changes need to be
trained on short term to be able to work with new technologies, machines, etc.
 on the other hand people need to be prepared to handle new technologies in
everyday life.
3.
Integration
Not everyone has the same opportunities, depending upon a number of factors
including capability, financial restrictions, ongoing prejudices, … These so called
"high- risk groups" deserve extra attention with regard to their adaptation to the
changes from globalisation, technological developments, etc.
Globalisation, technological changes and the pursuit of the integration of high- risk
groups pose an enormous challenge to the education and training sector.
4.
Specific problems for SMEs
In a world of globalising economy, fast changing technologies and growing highrisk groups, SMEs face an extra challenge: keeping up with changes, keeping
managers and personnel up to date and financing the whole.
In large enterprises with a bigger division of tasks some people can be responsible
for dealing with changes in a pro-active way. On the other hand a small enterprise –
where even the manager is trying to survive rather than dealing with pro-activethinking, some important changes in the environment only come to their notice at a
later stage. The time to react to important changes in the environment is often shorter
for an SME than for larger companies.
When changes in the current society are announced, this often requires extra training
of individuals in order to address the challenge. Big enterprises generally have a
personnel department at their disposal – including a training department – which
identifies the training needs of the company. Internal or external courses can be
developed to address these training needs. In SMEs there is a less structured training
policy.
There is no systematic research of training needs. These are either determined ad
hoc, or by looking for the most suitable training. Even though training centres are
trying to anticipate the needs of SMEs, it is very hard to offer a completely tailored
offer. An internal company training (developed and executed within the company) is
a rarity in SMEs.
Due to the financial and organisational limits the SME is faced with bigger problems
with regard to participation in training.
5.
Conclusion
It is estimated that an SME :
 is sometimes ill-informed about changes
 is less able to detect structural training needs
 has less opportunities for developing and executing its own training programme
 has less influence with regard to the training programmes of external training
centres
 cannot find the right training in the external demand.
Proposals for solutions
When an SME is confronted with a number of specific problems when anticipating
changes from the globalising economy, technological developments, etc., suitable
solutions have to be found.
10
Training that is not suited to SMEs and the problems of creating an internal
enterprise training structure demand a specific SME-training system. This way, it is
possible to offer an SME specific training, which takes into account their specific
training needs in the best way.
In order to connect this training with the SME-world, representatives of SMEs have
to be able to give input on the content. Moreover, the involved SME-organisations
will be able to anticipate SME-relevant developments more quickly and translate
these into training needs.
We can conclude that these training centres have to work as closely as possible with
SMEs. We also have to beware that the supply of services is adapted to the demand
and the needs of an SME, with among others the determination of training needs, the
creation of tailor-made training, the organisation of training within modalities
adapted to the organisational limitations of SMEs.
Of course this is not a new debate. It is absolutely necessary that by means of dataexchange we can find out what has already been achieved in different European
countries. Therefore a selection of best practices has to be made in order to limit the
number of cases to evaluate.
On the other hand it is very important to keep in mind that concepts cannot be copied
without adapting them to the specific situation in each country. The perspectives of
the different European cultures and the different labour markets renders making
copies of systems unrealistic.
11
The Financing of Continuous Training:
Difficulties of Access for SMEs
1.
Background
In a macroeconomic context characterised by the increasing tendency towards
globalisation and the integration of markets, and by a microeconomic surrounding
that demands a more and more rapid adaptation, European companies need to
maintain and improve their competitiveness constantly to be able to continue
growing with the market economy.
The new ways of work organisation and the technical progress that is applied directly
to the productive processes on the one hand, and to the introduction of the new
technologies of information and communication on the other, have resulted in
important changes in the way companies produce and sell their products and
services. To the traditional measures of business growth such as the price of money,
manual labour or industrial ground, have been added a series of factors, which, even
if they are not new, have increased more than considerably in their relative
importance to the global balance of business success (infrastructures, company
dynamism, investigation and development, training, etc).
The labour market itself has also undergone important changes. Geographic and
functional mobility are highly valued in this context, and are enhanced as such. In
parallel, concern is growing to increase the levels of employability of each individual
person, especially of the most unprotected, with the aim of facilitating personal and
professional development and achieving a better social balance.
Training in this context, and as was shown in the first part of the FUTURISME
project, is regarded as a strategic element for the development and growth of
companies in general and especially SMEs.
Starting from the basis that SMEs present substantial differences in comparison with
large companies from the point of view of organisational capacity and of access to
financing in general and that their main virtue is their capacity to react rapidly to
change (adaptability), the access of SMEs to the system of continuous training and
its corresponding system of financing must not only be guaranteed, but positively
favoured and promoted. The existing funding systems do not do this.
At this time in Europe continuous training follows different models of financing
although all suffer, in greater or smaller measure, from the problems of access of
SMEs to these systems.
As an example, we will analyse the case of Spain
The Spanish business network is made up largely of small and medium companies
(99.87%). They make up the main source of employment (73.21%) and generate
63,55 % of the total income of the economy.
Reliable statistical data does not exist to analyse the access of SMEs to continuous
training independently from the external system of financing.
Continuous training, in Spain is financed through two different systems. At national
level, the FORCEM (Foundation for the Continuous Training) manages
consignments of the European Social Funds and the national Social Security system
itself. At local and municipal level, some regional and local governments manage
programs of the Social European Fund directly.
We will centre the analysis on the data of the national system for the year 2000.
Nº
%
% By % Ac. by Nº Companies Companies
Nº
FORCE
Participants Size of
size of (DIRCE 2000) FORCEM M ON
(2)
FORCEM. company company
(1)
DIRCE
1 to 5
108.777
8,91
8,91
912.714
49.139
5,38
6 to 49
303.934
24,91
33,82
243.648
53.669
22,03
50toa 199
176.030
14,43
48,25
17.735
6.824
38,48
200 to 999
236.058
19,35
67,60
3.607
2.056
57,00
1000 to 4999
191.448
15,69
83,29
396
299
75,51
More than
4999
203.941
16,71
100,00
71
45
63,38
1.178.171
112.032
1.220.188
Source: Memory of Activities 2000 FORCEM.
Although at first we observe that more than 50% of the participants in subsidised
actions belong to SMEs, the evaluation is not so positive if we consider that, as has
already been mentioned, these account for 73,21% of workers.
It is worrying that according to the data showing the percentage of participation by
size of company, referring to the total number of companies demonstrates a
disproportionate increase in participation in larger companies. Of a total of 3,607
companies between 200 and 999 workers, 57% participate in subsidised actions. This
percentage comes to 75% for companies between 1000 and 4999 workers.
The funding granted through different types of financial assistance (Grouped Plans
and Plans of Company and Groups of Company) indicates that although more
resources are destined to the Grouped Plans, still more than 40% of the processed
files (in number of files) and of 27% in resources are destined for medium or large
companies.
13
In general, the access of SMEs is not guaranteed and is far from being favoured. In
fact, subsidised continuous training hardly reaches 9,5% of the total of companies.
Nevertheless 59% of companies with more than 200 workers receive assistance
whereas only 9,33% of SMEs do so. All this shows that the efforts made to favour
the access of SMEs to continuous subsidised training are not sufficient. Let us try to
analyse some of the main causes:
The social partners that participate in FORCEM’s structures do not guarantee
at all SME’s access to financed continuous training.
Only social partners who sign collective bargaining agreements are represented in
FORCEM. So most SME’s representatives cannot participate as some of them are
territorial organisations and the level they represent is not the one of collective
bargaining (local, regional versus national collective bargaining). The same happens
with the sectoral ones. In all cases, SME’s are not represented enough.
The organisation of the system, strongly centralised, does not allow the territorial
management of the aids. An extremely high percentage of assistance funds are
managed at national level, and for this reason the territorial services are unable to
evaluate the type of proposals. It is therefore difficult to obtain a balance between the
demand for training and the available resources.
An excess of bureaucratic proceedings restrains the access of SMEs to company
plans. For SMEs with limited resources and little enthusiasm for training, managing
financial aid independently requires a lot of effort, and therefore they frequently
resign their right to assistance. On the other hand, an SME may not know where to
go to look for assistance and on what terms this should be done.
The model is based on the offer instead of on demand. The SME needs tailor-made
training, adapted to its workers, to their time availability and capacity and,
sometimes, training which is “in company”. The managers of the assistance offer
closed catalogues of training actions that do not correspond to the needs of SMEs
(prolonged activities which require certain technologies, or time out of the enterprise,
and which standardise the contents which, by excess or deficit, do not cover the
needs of SMEs).
The system financially rewards big groups. FORCEM distributes the aids according
to a formula of Euro per hour and per student. This makes it impossible to have
made-to-measure training that addresses the needs of SMEs. In addition to being a
perverse system, the market does not move in these parameters. In a quality training
system, the cost is a variable that depends to a much greater degree on the number of
hours involved in the activity than the number of students, above all if we consider
that most of the subsidised training is collateral (languages, computers, management
techniques).
The required agents of the grouped plans control the teaching. The applicants ask for
their own criteria which is profitable for the management but which de facto
obstructs certain possibilities which the FORCEM permits: individualised training,
training actions in which the teacher is a worker in the company, etc. As these agents
14
channel the aids they should allow for all these options, which are often the best
suited to small and medium companies.
At present, the recovery of the investment already made is not envisaged. The SME
must carry out the training when they need it and when they can make it (seasonal
movements, production peaks) and the carrying out of the actions cannot be
constrained by administrative calendars of grant management. At the moment the
temporary continuity is not guaranteed.
In the face of this situation, it is evident that some important changes should be made
to the funding system first of all to guarantee and promote the access of SMEs to
continuous training and secondly to guarantee that they develop the training they
really need.
Up to now, we have assumed that the administration (local, regional, national or
European) is the only part which has to fund or pay for the continuous training.
Under this assumption, we must ask ourselves which changes should be made in the
existing funding system or which other funding systems should be implemented to
guarantee our objectives.
In any case flexibility could be a right answer in most cases. SMEs should be able to
decide between different funding options depending on their own needs. On the other
hand, co-financing may be a future key word to approach this problem. Who has to
pay for the continuous training? Administration, enterprises, employees?
Enterprises: In many countries, Chambers of Commerce do actually play an
important role in continuous training. In Spain, for example, each single enterprise,
small, medium or large is obliged by law to pay part of their profit to the local
Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber is therefore obliged by law to invest part of its
budget to promote continuous training. Could this system be changed and allow
each enterprise to invest directly a part of this amount in continuous training?
Is that a good solution for SMEs?
Other options are already working in some EU countries like France. Do enterprises
really think that paying fewer taxes is a good way to promote continuous
training? Do they feel that the state is really co-financing the continuous
training they develop? Is that a good solution for SMEs?
In theses days there is a clear tendency to include continuous training in collective
bargaining. Do SMEs know that? Are they aware of their role in financing
continuous training? Can SMEs assume it?
Employees: as has been stated in other papers, human capital “has feet”. It is also
quite clear that SMEs cannot afford on their own all the continuous training
investment. So, under which conditions should continuous training be cofinanced by employees?
15
Fitting the Formal Training Offer to the Needs of SMEs
1.
Description of the general problem
Europe is on the way to becoming a highly educated society over the next decade.
Knowledge and qualification will be one of the keys to prosperity and development.
It will be necessary to include in this process all parts of society. Since the backbone
of the European economy is SMEs and handicrafts, it will be especially necessary to
fit the training offers to the needs of these SMEs.
The participation of workers and entrepreneurs of handicrafts and SMEs for training
purposes has, in many European countries, resulted up until now in fragmented
experiences, strongly related to and inspired by the context of territorial needs.
2.
The Reform process for professional training
The reform process for professional training which is in continual evolution in the
individual member states, has modified the political–legislative framework for
training which, in accordance with what is mentioned in the European Commission’s
Memorandum on Permanent Education and Training, attributes to it a strategic value
for human resource development and individual occupational growth.
In view of this situation, and in order to address the expectations arising from
institutional and normative changes at various levels, it appears even more necessary
to create optimum conditions for training.
Specific problems for SMEs
For SMEs and artisans this means making training offers adequate and coherent for
the needs of companies. We have to remember that these organisations are structured
in a different way to industry and big companies. Every member of the organisation,
be it the entrepreneur himself or the employee wears several hats. He is responsible
for a large number of tasks and jobs at the same time, which also means that if a
member of the organisation is absent for training, their job cannot simply be carried
out by anyone else. So the time for off-the-job training is very limited on the one
hand, and may be reduced further on the other hand because all members of this
organisation gain vast experiences in different fields on-the-job through their daily
work.
The knowledge and reality of the work of artisans and of all the economic,
productive and organisational characteristics and dynamics of small enterprises, lead
one to believe that no form of training in micro-enterprises, either for the owner, his
collaborators or employees, is likely to succeed if it is not accompanied by a full
understanding and knowledge of the entrepreneur himself as to its necessity and
effect on the qualifications and development of the company.
3.
Proposals concerning solutions
 The training offer should not be of a general or indifferent nature, but should take
into consideration the specific needs expressed by the individuals who will be
involved in the life cycle of the enterprise and its position in a sectoral and
territorial context.
 It follows that the offer of continual training should provide individualised
training courses, adapted perfectly to the underlying conditions from a subjective
(individual needs), and an objective (life cycle and development prospective of
the company) point of view. The continual training offer must directly involve the
enterprise owner, because due to their participation we get an exceptional
multiplying effect of requests for training from all the other human resources
involved in the company.
 It follows therefore that the association preparing a training programme should
have an organised training model capable of dividing and uniting its contents in
such a way as to gather the needs mentioned above. The modern way of doing this
is to modularise the training and/or to use and promote e-learning. This allows for
the possibility of offering tailor-made seminars or at least to cut the time where
presence is necessary in the classroom. It also means that we need to have a new
perspective on training and new pedagogical understanding of how know-how can
be delivered.
4.
Models of training
A similar model has been successfully tried out by Confartigianato in EmiliaRomagna on the basis of transversal training, firstly on the entrepreneurs and then on
the workers.
Experience has been gained through continual training, characterised by personalised
courses satisfying the training administrative–managerial and computer needs of
numerous handicraft enterprises and their workers as well as responding to the
programme and managerial needs of the labour market and developing the growth
and consolidation of small entrepreneurship.
In particular, the courses corresponded to the needs of companies and workers,
taking into consideration the individual organisational needs of enterprises with
regard to the growth of their capabilities and the orientation and construction of the
users’ own growth.
The particulars of this model are evident in the training proposal directed towards
entrepreneurs: this is not yet conceived as a single intervention inclusive of all the
cultural development opportunities of enterprises and managerial capabilities, but
three different training levels which develop the single unit of management
capabilities in terms of in-depth study.
A fundamental factor of training is therefore the offer of complete organisational
flexibility of the model and the commitment of the users to the training models.
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Entrepreneurs have full freedom of choice as to when to enter into training and to
choose which level of study to join, and to leave when they consider that the required
capabilities have been reached.
As regards the subscription request, it has been possible to verify that the adopted
organisational model has satisfied:
 the request of companies on the basis of organisational analysis;
 the legitimate needs expressed by the operating company owners and employees,
for their own professionalisation;
 the capability level when workers start and the objectives reached expressed by
the company and the workers when they finish;
 the individual development/training programme course that will finally describe
succinctly the meeting point of the needs/ambitions described.
This model also appears valid for professional-technical training.
In the light of the experience of the Piedmont Confartigianato, which added
methodological data for training to the organisational model through new
communication technology, the use of such technology has confirmed that a large
adherence to the training programme can be obtained by proposing methodologies
which are compatible with the organisational needs of micro-enterprises, since the
size of the company represents a strong influence and even a restraint on access to
continual training.
It is also important to underline the fact that when training programmes are
methodologically compatible whilst respecting the principle of personalised courses,
there is an increase in training requests relating not only to different levels of
capabilities (from technical/professional to basic or transversal and vice versa) but
also to more traditional training methodologies (from distance training to the
classroom), which suggests that companies are prepared to take more difficult
organisational choices when they are convinced of a successful outcome.
The production of a personalised training offer, capable of organising courses that
take into consideration current processes of certification for ability and the
recognition of credits, even when developed within the field of continual training
programmes, could contribute to the build-up of integration between systems in a
concrete and effective way.
The flexible organisational model of training would actually be able to offer precise
input to the formation and training system, above all taking the formative contents of
personalised courses into consideration.
As regards work, such a model appears to be not only in line with the principles of
adaptability and employability, which have inspired the entire programming of the
Community funds and therefore with the objectives of labour force growth, but also
serves to promote economic and social development.
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The instruments necessary and efficient for us to construct an offer of personalised
training are such (from needs analysis – well known and unconscious – of individual
enterprises, to analysis of real development potential and/or of reorganisation of the
same) that the impact of orientation activity for users, especially workers and
entrepreneurs that operate within micro companies, appears to be a useful lever for
the widening of the productive – economic base of a territory and of the labour
market.
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