Page 95 - Learning-while-working-Success-stories-on-workplace-learning-in-Europe

In-company trainers as key drivers of quality 89

While in-company trainers tend to have a strong vocational identity as skilled
workers in a specific domain, they do not usually possess a strong identity
as trainers. As a result, policy initiatives on continuing vocational training
have difficulty in reaching trainers in enterprises as a target group. Further,
there are very few interest groups for this occupational category in Europe.
Where there are no minimum training standards for companies, obligatory
basic workplace health and safety regulations are an indirect approach to
improving the quality of in-company training, since they have resulted in
higher levels of responsibility and recognition of trainers. Across Europe,
minimum requirements and professional profiles for in-company trainers are
being introduced to define the basic competences they need. Competence
standards, qualification requirements and certification processes may well
lead in the future to a redesign of ‘training professions’.
The complexity of trainers’ working environments, in particular in fast-
moving sectors, requires innovative and cost-effective strategies for their
continuing professional development, which will not constitute an additional
burden or an unbearable demand. Flexible arrangements for continuing
learning by trainers can informal and non-formal, being project-based and
organised on-the-job, or through peer learning. Communities of practice led by
sector organisations or training providers themselves have been successful in
offering advice, assessing training needs, encouraging knowledge sharing and
shaping training opportunities tailored to trainer needs. Trainers in companies
are facing new challenging tasks for which they need to be supported. They
will have a decisive role in the design of working environments and work
organisation that encourage learning, such as work processes in which skill
development is embedded.
In-company trainers are key drivers and sine qua non conditions for high
quality continuing training and on-the-job learning in enterprises. Trainers are
also a key partner in strategic policies that encourage lifelong learning and
age-friendly working environments, as well as those that attempt to secure
employment, through successful life and work transitions, and by providing
the right skills for the new jobs that will emerge in the future. By failing to
attract and retain the right trainers, and by not offering them opportunities
for professional development, we run the risk of building castles in the air.
Strategic policy developments are acknowledging the contributions of trainers
and the need to support them in their increasingly demanding tasks. A lot
has been done to improve the status of trainers and much more needs to
be done to improve their competences, status and recognition.