Intermediate Skills in the Workplace: Deployment, Standards and Supply in Britain, France and Germany^∗

Abstract

Previous international comparisons of workforce skills by the National Institute have focussed on the relative shortage of craft skills in Britain. The present study is concerned with the next higher level of supervisory and technician skills; on the basis of visits to factories and technical colleges in Britain, France and Germany, and analysis of labour force statistics, it compares and contrasts the provision and deployment of these intermediate skills in manufacturing industry in the three countries. At supervisory level only Germany undertakes a significant amount of training and to standards adequate to the increased complexity and technical demands of modern manufacturing. At technician (Higher National) level, the numbers acquiring comparable qualifications in Britain and France are substantially higher than in Germany: in part this reflects the allocation of a large proportion of technical support functions in German industry to craft-trained personnel. After examining the relative distribution of training costs between employers, individuals and the public authorities in the three countries, the paper makes proposals for a more cost-effective mix of craft- and technician-level skills in British manufacturing which might, in the process, reduce the need for over-qualified personnel to ‘plug the gaps’ in skills among shopfloor workers and supervisors.

The Effects of Policies for Training Skills on Improving Innovation Capabilitites in Firms

“…While investments in HRST and leading-edge scientific and engineering endeavours are undoubtedly critical for productivity and economic growth, policies with a narrow HRST focus are likely to generate deficits in the wider stock of essential technical and intermediate-level skill and knowledge (Bosch and Charest 2009, Steedman et al 1991, Grubb 1996, which is typically developed through combinations of school and workplace-based vocational education and training. Careful consideration of the roles played by HRST and more general technical and intermediate skills in fostering and sustaining innovation is thus required in order to support an effective policy framework.…”

Regional Rates of Return to Education and Training in Britain

“…This must reflect the low level of incentives to upgrade qualifications in Britain observed by other commentators (e.g. P R A I S , 1983; CASSELS, 1990;STEEDMAN et al, 1991). This contributes to a low staying-on rate and a low qualification rate.…”

“…R I C E , 1987, andMICKLEWRIGHT, 1989, use individual level data to estimate reduced-form models of the decision to stay in full-time education. Only M I C K L E W R I G H T , 1988, andBENNETT et ul., 1992a, estimate structural models of the school-leaving decision in which expected lifetime earnings appear explicitly.…”

Skills and work organisation in Britain: a quarter century of change

“…Analysts had become accustomed to a picture of skills deficiency in Britain, based on benchmarking comparisons of the supply and use of qualifications in other major industrialised nations, notably France, Germany and the United States (e.g. Steedman et al 1991). In particular it was assumed that there was a deficiency of intermediate skills in Britain reflecting insufficient qualification supply.…”