by Alan Brown
Research conducted for the European Commission
Since 2000 the European Union (EU) has sought to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in... more
Since 2000 the European Union (EU) has sought to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world. In line with this goal, member states committed themselves to increasing European cooperation in vocational education and training (VET) through the Copenhagen
process. However, in this process relatively little attention has been given to continuing vocational training (CVT) and, more precisely, how individuals use continuing learning and engage with continuing vocational training to develop and direct their individual careers, particularly in the context of increased
labour market flexibility and mobility.
As a response to this research gap a study was commissioned in 2007 to examine continuing vocational training from the perspective of how individual careers are developing across Europe. In particular, the European Commission was seeking to get a better understanding of the different kinds of continuing training workers engage with and the role that work itself plays in individuals’ skills and competence
development. To date, most research and surveys in this area have focused upon the take-up of formal
CVT provision and self-directed individual learning and development. In addition, the emphasis has been
mainly on learning and training in the past few months or in the last year.What was missing, however,
was some sense of how individuals integrate learning and development into their evolving careers over
a much longer period of time. The main objective of this study was therefore to develop an understanding of the different ways individual careers are unfolding over time and the implications such processes have for European policies on CVT.
The study was designed to involve a desk review of qualitative material on work biographies, learning and career decision making styles in the first year, and the implementation of a small-scale international comparative survey in the second year. The desk review and feasibility study, which also included the review of third party surveys, resulted in the generation of hypotheses that provided the basis for
developing a standardised questionnaire for survey implementation. The English questionnaire was pretested
and translated into Dutch, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian and Turkish to be implemented in ten European countries. Overall, answers from 1148 respondents, of which 900 questionnaires were fully completed, were used for a descriptive statistical analysis.
The Copenhagen process is due for review in 2010. In this context the study was a timely initiative to shed light on one of the challenges identified in the ‘Key competences for a changing world’ (CEC 2009): ‘implementing lifelong learning through formal, non-formal and informal learning and increasing mobility’ by drawing attention to how these different types of learning interact across the life-course and how they may facilitate mobility in the labour market. The executive summary outlines the key findings and issues arising from the research and concludes with a series of recommendations for CVT policy and practice.
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![](http://photos.academia.edu/480754/162363/189178/tiny_gaia.valentino.jpg?1324450734 "<strong>Gaia Valentino</strong><br/>Luiss "Guido Carli" University"){kind=small}
