The rise and change of the competence strategy: reflections on twenty-five years of skills policies in the EU

The principal aim of this article is to provide a historical overview of 25 years of competence policy in the European Union, highlighting connections between past and current initiatives and outlining possible scenarios for the decade to come. The article presents the social investment turn in social policy as the critical political background against which the emergence of a competence strategy in European Union education policy should be analysed and understood. The competence strategy, it is argued, finds its roots in a renewed attention at the European Union level for harmonising educational outputs and labour market demands. While trying to produce a schematic history of the emergence and change of the competence strategy, the article does not seek to offer strict definitions of competence itself; instead, it conveys the nebulous and context-dependent nature of the concept

Work Organisation, Forms of Employee Learning and National Systems of Education and Training

International audienceThis article uses a multi-level framework to investigate for 17 European nations the links between forms of work organisation and style of employee learning at the workplace on the one hand, and the characteristics of national educational and training systems on the other. The analysis shows that forms of work organisation characterised by relatively high levels of employee discretion and learning are more likely to be adopted in nations with broad-based systems of education and training that recognise the value of both academic and vocational training and provide ample opportunities for continuing adult education. Furthermore, it shows that employees with low levels of formal education have better access to jobs involving organisational learning in countries with more developed adult education systems. The results point to the need to balance policies designed to increase tertiary education rates with a commitment of resources at both the EU and national levels to develop broad and inclusive systems of lifelong learning