Page 21 - Learning-while-working-Success-stories-on-workplace-learning-in-Europe

Learning while working 15

through effective transition from job to job and from unemployment to work
(Council of the European Union, 2007; Eurofound, 2008b).

‘Flexicurity covers transitions and adjustments within an enterprise (internal flexicurity)
as well as transitions from job-to-job and between employment and self-employment
(external flexicurity). High quality workplaces with capable leadership, good organisation of
work, information and consultation structures and continuous upgrading of skills are part
and facets of the concept of flexicurity. This includes measures that maintain and improve
work capacity and offer possibilities to reconcile work and family life’ (Expert Group on
Flexicurity, 2007, p. 11).

Skill development and continuing training bring a strong contribution to
the flexicurity agenda by making worker skills more transferable among
employers. Rather than safeguarding a job that will ultimately fade away, the
flexicurity concept assumes that it is the worker who needs protection and
support for a successful transition within the same or with another employer
(European Commission, 2010c). Continuing training and career guidance
play a key role in easing labour market transitions and achieving greater
employment security. Increasing labour market flexibility without securing
job transitions through training and guidance, or without protecting workers’
wellbeing, could ruin social cohesion and damage the social contract between
the citizens and the state; governments and social partners need to be
vigilant. As mid-career changes become recurrent, public authorities, social
partners, VET providers and companies will need to explore new answers
to the questions on when, how, where and by whom training provision will
be delivered and financed, since flexible access to training will need to be
combined with flexible work organisation (European Commission, 2010d).
Flexicurity relies on four components that should be balanced and taken
into account simultaneously: flexible and secure contractual arrangements
and work organisation; effective active labour market policies; reliable and
responsive lifelong learning systems; and supportive and productive social
dialogue (Expert Group on Flexicurity, 2007). Adult learning, in a variety of
forms, and career guidance are building blocks of the flexicurity agenda.
The social partners in Sweden have negotiated a wide range of job security
agreements, including transition funds, to manage effectively enterprise
restructuring; these have been referred to as ‘transicurity’. Displaced workers
may, in addition to individual career guidance, participate in further education,
while receiving compensation for their lost earnings. In this context, workers
who have not been laid off are also granted training in the event of structural
changes to maintain their competences (Cedefop, 2010e).