Human Resources Development Strategy

Human Resources Development Strategy - Czech Republic

Human Resources Development Strategy - Czech Republic

English Summary

Prague, December 2000

Authors:

Miroslava Kopicová (NTF Director), Ivan Fišera (Team Leader), František Blohlávek, Eva Bosáková, Pavla Burdová, Jaromír Coufalík, Vra Czesaná, Vladimírermák, Ladislaverych, Jarmila Ditrychová, Milan Horálek, Miroslav Huka, Petra Jedliková, Vra Jourová, Jaroslav Kalous, Michal Karpíšek, Václav Kle ha, Milan Kubr, Miroslava Mandíková, Petr Matj, Jarmila Modrá, Daniel Munich, František Ochrana, Barbora Slintáková, Jan Švejnar, Angela Taylor, Eva Vladyková, Jií Zlatuška

Source: National Training Fund

Introduction
Prognosis of the Global and National Challenges for the Czech Human Resources in the Next Ten Years
Limited Resources of the Czech Republic in Relation to the Global and National Challenges
Principal Strategic Blocks and Partial Strategies

1. Introduction

The project “Human Resource Development Strategy for the Czech Republic” is part of the National Training Fund programme “Labour Market and Human Resources Development” and it is financed from the PHARE programme.

The specific objective of the project is “to formulate and present a national strategy, promote and support application of a strategic approach to human resource development”. At the same time the project should be “a contribution for all public and private organisations and institutions engaged in human resource development and interested in its support within the Czech Republic”.

“The wider purpose of the project is to develop, present and start implementing a strategic approach to future human resource development in the Czech Republic”.

This brief version should serve the orientation of international as well as local participants of the “Czech Human Resources at the Crossroads” working conference, organised by the National Training Fund on 9 – 10 November 2000 at the DIPLOMAT Hotel. The complete discussion version is available at the National Training Fund and has been distributed to the conference participants.

2. Prognosis of the Global and National Challenges for the Czech Human Resources in the Next Ten Years

In the next twenty years the Czech Republic is going to be affected by globalisation and European regionalisation. It will also be exposed to further global scientific and technological development of hardly predictable speed and intensity, which however indicates a number of significant surprises unprecedented in the past. The Czech Republic will have to face the pressure of “shortening distances” and the decline of mere geographical advantages. These trends are inevitable and there is no way to ignore them.

It is necessary to be aware of all serious consequences of the global hypercompetition causing further merges of big multinational companies and their ongoing international expansion. It must be expected that strategic decision making will continue to concentrate in the centres of these multinational companies, in international organisations and large supranational bodies, as for example the EU. Internationalisation of research and development and its concentration to large countries and multinational companies must be anticipated. The remarkably intensive internationalisation will also affect the field of education.

It is necessary to assume a realistic attitude to the future behaviour of investors. They will increasingly seek territories that provide them with long-term comprehensive competition advantages and guaranteed safety. Qualified, morally integrated and adequately expensive human resources, i.e. national and regional human capital, will be considered more and more important among the advantages offered by national states and regions. Similarly, small and middle-sized businesses become more dependent on the density of foreign investments in the respective territory and are increasingly forced to enter the multinational market relations.

The investors, big as well as small, expect to find in any country employees and managers who master the newest technologies and highest standards of ICT, who can run operations in branches and lead subordinates, manage the demands of “new methods of work organisation” and who are able to communicate in an international and multi-ethnic environment.

The attention of national governments as well as EU institutions therefore turns to the problem of current employment and future employability of citizens in individual countries and regions. Apparently, the importance of this aspect is growing and citizens are rightly beginning to consider it a priority. This leads to growing competitive behaviour among the states and their economically active citizens trying to attract investors and it will continue to grow. A hypercompetition of national labour potentials can be expected.

The Czech Republic has to accommodate to this trend as fast as possible in order to balance the loss it suffered due to the totalitarian regime, to achieve the highest possible level of prosperity for the citizens and to reduce sufficiently the accompanying negative impact of global economic pressures.

The Czech population still benefits from its geographical position and long years of industrial culture. However, regarding the employability of Czech citizens, it is now crucial, whether they manage to retain their reputation of qualified, skilful and creative human resources in the current rapid development of technologies in general and information and communication technologies in particular, and whether they succeed in quick and decisive adjustment of their abilities, skills, knowledge and attitudes to the tough and inevitable challenges of the near future.

The internal situation of the Czech Republic will require maximum mobilisation of human resources and their national and regional management. According to recent statistics, the Czech Republic can take advantage of foreign investors in reconstructing the physical capital. However, the necessary reconstruction and growth of the national human capital will have to be financed mainly from national resources, public and private, which are evidently scarce in comparison to richer countries. Moreover, the regeneration and principal strengthening of the human capital in the Czech Republic will proceed under considerably difficult conditions:

The difficulties of large Czech enterprises will continue, many of them will close down or parts of them will be taken over by foreign owners. These changes are negatively reflected also in the situation of small and medium enterprises. It will be necessary to overcome additional waves of sector and regional unemployment and to cope with extensive transfers of people to new jobs and professions.

At the same time the Czech Republic will have to cope with the problems of its three economically active generations:

Older middle generation, approximately from the age of forty to the retirement age, strongly affected by former education, work and life experience, which is extremely endangered on the labour market, similarly to other countries.
Younger middle generation, which recently completed education, but is not well prepared for future yet, a substantial part of this generation still has not sufficiently developed the needed skills, knowledge and attitudes to work.
Young generation, whose education still has to undergo radical changes, which have been launched, but proceed too slowly.

Each of the three generations will need a specific conception of lifelong learning with differentiated content, methods and approach. Such education must involve orientation towards long-term individual life planning and support active attitudes to individual employability. The Czech education system will have to change fundamentally to be fully comparable with the successful international systems, their formal aspects, but above all their content and methods.

The Czech population will have to deal with an essential value dilemma: either a comfortable, but poor consumerism and negligent investments in education, or accepting a certain discomfort required by the customer oriented approach to demanding investors and preference of individual and social investments in education. In order to solve the dilemma, which is a silent but serious dispute among substantial parts of the population, the leading role of the Czech political and spiritual elite needs to be revived.

3. Limited Resources of the Czech Republic in Relation to the Global and National Challenges

In relation with the task of fast and radical human capital development, the Czech Republic is facing the challenge of the following three fundamental resource limitations:

Ageing of the Czech population makes the issue of a suitable strategy for solving the problem even more serious than in a number of EU countries. Czech population is not much experienced in facing major inflows of immigrants, therefore a full opening of the country to free immigration could be risky for several reasons. The immigration will have to be regulated in the future, while it will be necessary to rely on the own capacity, i.e. to strengthen education, skills, moral maturity and long-term physical condition of the Czech population as much as possible.

Limited number of natural talents is a problem characteristic for small nations and it is even more serious in case of the Czech Republic, as many talented people here have often been deliberately held back in their development by former totalitarian regimes. Besides, the education and distribution of talented people in the society is deformed by certain aspects, such as the insufficiently open system of tertiary education, the education system which is not sufficiently sensitive to talents, the separation of extensive research from the tertiary education, low salaries in the public and state administrations, low salaries in educational system, weak social support for talents, etc. The issue of “cautious use” of talents and their systematic education and stimulation was long tabooed and it is now being exposed to ideological pressures again. However, it is one of the principal factors determining general situation and strategy of small nations in the human resources area.

Critical shortage of financial resources for an intensive human resource development concerns the public budget as well as majority of the Czech enterprises and households. This is in comparison with the advanced European countries, which have not only a better tradition of knowledge, but also a substantial lead in many important areas of economy. The problem should be solved by long-term preference of education in public budgets as well as by strengthening the value orientation of the population towards education, by supporting individuals and companies investing in education by means of tax allowances, by introduction of socially sensitive school fees and extending possibilities of multisource financing, and through the use of modern financing methods. The EU presents an important resource at present and even more in future – particularly the European Social Fund.

4. Principal Strategic Blocks and Partial Strategies

4.1 Common fundament –transferable knowledge and skills

The Czech population is lagging behind the developed countries primarily in fundamental transferable skills and knowledge that were underestimated in the past for various reasons, or influenced by the ideological orientation of the totalitarian regime. Increasing the level of transferable knowledge is definitely a very important factor for a higher stability of the democratic society and flexibility of the Czech human resources.

4.1.1 Strategy of matching the democratic, economic, methodological and existential literacy of the Czech population

Democratic literacy lies in the citizens’ ability to understand the nature of democracy, its assets and its specific problems and drawbacks, in knowing the principles of democratic decision making and building democratic institutions, in understanding and awareness of potential threats to democracy, in awareness of human rights and freedoms, in accepting fundamental attitudes of community involvement, etc.

Economic literacy includes knowledge and skills needed for a successful market-related personal and professional life, understanding the basic customer, business, financial and management behaviour, mastering the basic skills needed in relation to various market documents and now also the basics of e-commerce.

Methodological literacy includes handling the basic operations of classical logic and general methodology of problem solving. The most important are methods of data gathering and analysis, their classification and processing, heuristic and creative methods, methods of choice of options and general decision making, team work methods, methods of presenting complex phenomena including flow charts, elementary statistical methods, etc. Methodological literacy also determines to what extent will the population succeed in managing the use of information and communication technologies.

Existential literacy includes mainly the ability to ask questions about the meaning and value of human existence, to seek the answers on the basis of deeper knowledge and one’s own developed free thinking, to accept tolerance towards different existential conceptions, to be able to search firm roots of one’s moral principles and life values. It also includes very practical existential skills, such as long-term planning of own life, creating relationships to others, building individual and social responsibility, etc.

The four types of general literacy are closely interconnected, mutually supported and conditioned. Measures towards their increase are directed to the fields of education, further education and the impact of the media.

4.1.2 The strategy of the information literacy

Although the Czech government has already initiated several measures aimed at the information society development, this important goal remains urgent and must belong to the priorities for the whole society. Information technology equipment for individuals and institutions and its non-discriminative accessibility to citizens is an essential condition for the achievement of desirable information literacy level. The accessibility of school networks and Internet for students at school, at home or at student hostels is an ongoing problem due to the financial possibilities of educational institutions. Insufficient information literacy is still an issue for majority of educators at all levels of the education system. The support of adult education in information literacy and the attention paid to it remains low compared to the situation in the EU countries.

If the human resources of the Czech Republic are to remain competitive on the global market, not only financial means must be streamed into the improvement of information literacy, but also effective forms of co-operation between the public and private sector to develop the information society and information literacy need to be sought. The information and communication technology must be incorporated in all forms of education, the lifelong learning in this area must be supported and developed. For the whole range of professions and activities their information background should be maintained and developed. Support by top specialists, educators, businessmen, managers and politicians, who can actively influence the information literacy development, needs to be considered strategically important.

The proposed measures concerning the development of information literacy are aimed mainly at the increase in government programming activities, at curricular reforms and improvement of opportunities to gain certificates showing the required degree of information literacy. The proposed measures also include training and motivation of teachers and librarians, technology background for teaching, support of individual, private and public subjects that assist in increasing information literacy of not only pupils and students, but also teachers and other educators. Emphasis is also put on pupils’ and students’ extracurricular activities, distance learning in ICT as part of the lifelong learning, development and use of quality education programmes and teaching aids, higher utilisation of ICT in public administration, etc. The whole spectrum of measures, support and education implemented under this strategy must be based on the principle of equal opportunities.

4.1.3 The strategy of achieving general knowledge of English

The third key literacy is the ability of the Czech population to communicate internationally. Though other languages have importance in the European or Central European context too, the universal language of international communication is definitely English. The knowledge of English is also indispensable for achieving the information literacy on the international level. It is one of the most important factors for international competitiveness of national labour force potentials. According to a survey made by SIALS, only 15% of Czech people can speak English, and only 55% state that they can communicate in a foreign language.

Such situation must be labelled as critical and requires fast implementation of clear measures. The most important steps are:

English must be proclaimed a language priority and necessity.
Learning English must be obligatory and should begin as early as possible at schools. Every school-leaver has to master the minimum indispensable for the respective school grade.
Learning opportunities for citizens of younger and older middle generations must be extended and they should be encouraged to master English at least as a general communication language.
Intensive preparation programmes for teachers of English should be introduced. The government support must ensure a good teacher of English for every school, similarly as a quality computer or Internet.
English should be preferred as the main foreign language for the state administration.
Czech as well as foreign companies must be supported and stimulated in learning English as the universal language of business, technology and information society.
A higher number of films with subtitles should support English and other foreign languages in reaching people’s minds.

4.2. People and competitive organisations

Competitiveness of companies is the basic condition for every successful economy and this imperative cannot be avoided. People as employees, managers and businessmen have to conform to this imperative, otherwise they threaten the ability of enterprises to survive. In the overall social context, even the public service organisations and public administration have to adjust to the demand of competitiveness in order to create a broader framework for successful operation of commercial companies in the international environment. Although this principle might seem too hard to many people in our country, there is no other way than to respect it.

4.2.1. Strategy for the Czech employees – expert excellence, professional and organisational adaptability, ethical integrity

The traditional competitive value of Czech employees was the high proportion of tertiary and secondary technological schools of good quality and high proportion of skilled workers and employees. This value has weakened over the last ten years and so far it has not been compensated by younger generations with full, more universally oriented education in technology or economy/organisation. At the same time, unemployment has increased, in some regions it even surpassed the critical 20%, high numbers of human resources were made redundant and left in urgent need of intensive training and retraining programmes, social and psychological assistance and above all effective actions aimed at attracting investors into the endangered regions.

The problem of the Czech employees gains a shape characteristic for a fairly successful transformation of an economically advanced country, which naturally continues to face certain handicaps of a post-communist country:

On one hand, there is a successful and relatively highly qualified labour force, which attracts investors, is able to adapt to new conditions and, in co-operation with the foreign owners and Czech businessmen, even achieves excellent results.
On the other hand, there still exists a strong group of employees from traditional Czech enterprises, banks, etc., which has already entered or is going to enter the labour market, together with the alarming number of young unemployed school-leavers. Many of these people remain unemployed for a very long time, collect social benefits combined with occasional jobs, and begin to show psychological symptoms of long-term unemployment.

In the highest possible number, the Czech employees will have to meet the demands of investors and businessmen in order to reach high working standards, high level of labour relations and protection of employees rights, their health and occupational safety.

In the context of Czech national situation confronted with the impact of globalisation, it is necessary to concentrate on the following activities and measures:

Critical sources of unemployment must be removed. Therefore the system of public employment services has to develop, labour market analyses and prognoses must be promoted in the endangered regions, the growth of legal and above all illegal activities of foreigners must be prevented, social benefits for those who refuse a suitable employment must be reduced, incentives for entrepreneurs and creation of job opportunities in the critical regions need to be strengthened. It is also crucial to solve the unemployment of young people and encourage professional training of women on long-term maternity leave.
It is necessary to focus on technical and craftsmanship flexible excellence of Czech employees. The offer of quality training and learning programmes with the use of “friendly” methods needs to be extended for both middle generations in order to facilitate for them the access to additional accredited certificates of all educational levels. We consider it right to support the classical Czech educational triple combination: a technically and universally educated manager, an educated and creative technician plus a highly qualified worker. Regarding the unpredictable development of future market demands, the combination however requires higher proportion of general technological and commercial education. It is also necessary to prepare special programmes to retrain groups with specific or worsened adaptability to new professions.
It is highly necessary to struggle for the increase of organisational literacy of Czech employees and to provide them with much more information on the nature of new forms of work organisation, on the behaviour of companies and the pressure they exert on the dynamics and adaptability of employees. At the same time, they must learn to assert their rights and to observe and urge high standard of labour relations. It is therefore also important to pay more attention to public awareness of the world of work, to involve social partners much more in educational and research programmes and to develop research of the labour market, labour relations, new methods of work organisation and specific problems of employees.

4.2.2. Strategy for the Czech businessmen and managers – internationalisation of knowledge and skills

To a considerable extent, the first stage of the Czech economical transformation depended on the skills and abilities, the leadership talent, business courage and judgement, and moral integrity of Czech businessmen and managers. These skills and abilities will also be crucial for the future development of the economy and the Czech employment. Despite many difficulties and problematic transformation steps, many Czech businessmen and managers have built highly effective and competitive, though not very numerous, Czech businesses over the last ten years, or they became professional and internationally recognised managers in the companies of foreign investors. Unfortunately, this important part of the Czech business and management community has not received much public support. On the contrary, in political speeches and public opinion, it is still unjustly in the shadow of another group of Czech businessmen and managers, who took advantage of the transformation, being often on the wrong side of the law and in contradiction with ethical standards, only for the sake of their own profit, or by those who could not readily adapt themselves to a new international environment.

During the 90’s, a widely branched out and pluralistic management education developed in the Czech Republic, in many cases with international support. Unfortunately, the development of management education has not been systematically subsidised by the state contrary to many advanced European countries.

Businessmen and managers therefore have to be openly recognised as one of the key national elite groups. The Czech layer of internationally oriented and experienced businessmen and managers must be built up and deeply embedded nationally, otherwise it will be more difficult for the Czech Republic to face the negative impact of globalisation, without making full use of its benefits. The lack of business and management talent is an international problem. This problem concerns us all the more, since the Czech population is becoming an internationally appreciated source of young talented managers for international business.

In order to encourage the modern national layer of managers and businessmen, several measures have to be taken, especially the following ones:

All levels of education must focus on the upbringing of the leading, enterprising and responsible management talents.
The outstanding models of Czech as well as international business and management should be presented to young people and the whole Czech public.
Case studies of successful Czech companies or foreign companies in the Czech environment must be published and be available for the education of businessmen and managers.
Czech businessmen and managers must be financially supported in their education and training. This type of support should be financed also from the resources for active employment policy.
The Czech system of business and management education and information support must become comparable with the best international standards. The establishment of international business and management schools in the Czech Republic should be encouraged.
It is very important to be more open to the fresh management education and training experience coming from successful European countries. Small and medium enterprises need programmes similar to those prepared in Ireland.
Medium and large Czech businesses should be offered subsidised programmes on strategic and crisis management.
In the Czech conditions, the executive and supervisory board members should be required to pass at least a minimum training in the field of corporate management and administration, or prove their competencies in this area.
Regarding the general situation in the management field as well as in the global and Czech economies, it is necessary to elaborate a national programme for encouragement and development of business and managerial talents.

4.3. Strategy for improvement of the Czech public administration staff

The role of public and mainly state central administration has been strongly underestimated for a long time after the fall of the totalitarian regime. The assistance offered from abroad was not utilised and national programmes were not developed. Many experienced and qualified employees of the state administration moved to the private sector. In addition to that, the transformation tasks were completely new, very substantial and strongly influenced by inexperienced political decision making. There was hardly any time left for systematic building of a new democratic state administration and no political will to deal with the issue. Appointments to important positions in the public administration were influenced by narrow interests of the political parties. The public and above all central state administration did not manage to create an organisational culture oriented on professionalism, reliability, creativity, open communication and most importantly – objective assessment of people and their performance. The necessity of radical changes in the area of human resources in the public administration was made clearly evident by the demand for a faster preparation of the Czech Republic to enter the EU.

There was no government body to deal with the public administration development until 1998, when the Ministry of Interior founded the division for public administration reform. In 1999, the government approved the public administration reform and the policy for education and training in the public administration, submitted by the Ministry of Interior. In August 2000, the government also approved a follow-up document – Training System for Public Administration Staff. At the beginning of 2000 the government approved an outline proposal of the civil service law, prepared by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. Its full draft will be submitted to the government till the end of this year.

The above steps became the starting points for the Czech public administration development. The following aspects of this important process must be emphasised:

The programme of radical increase in the quality of public administration and particularly activities of centralised bodies has to become one of the priorities and permanent challenges for all future governments.
Radical improvement of management skills and knowledge of senior civil servants must be considered a key strategic measure.
All internal and external advisors in public administration, who participate in the preparation of significant decisions, bills, programmes, strategies and projects, must be considered an important group.
It is necessary to prepare programmes for public administration employees, who come into direct contact with the public, in order to teach them to treat citizens as customers.
Public administration employees must have the possibility to improve and extend their knowledge continuously. Especially the senior employees should gradually become generalists.
Development of moral values and anchoring of ethical principles should obviously become a part of the public administration culture.
The presumed entry of the Czech Republic into the EU makes it necessary to devise projects on the preparation of the public administration employees for this new and very significant situation.
Specific language programmes for public administration employees must be developed, with an emphasis on English.
The public administration in general needs a programme that will lead to full mastering of ICT and the ability to work with information from domestic as well as foreign sources.
A transparent and if possible unified system of personnel management has to be created as soon as possible in the public administration.
The planned Institute of Public Administration should be established as soon as possible on the basis usual in European countries.
For a radical increase in the level of state administration employees it is necessary to gain and prepare top lecturers with an international perspective and modern approach to training.

4.4. Education for the next century

Education is undoubtedly a decisive strategic factor for the future of the Czech Republic. In the time that requires lifelong learning, there is an increased need to improve initial (preparatory) education of youth, as well as further adult education, and to improve access to education for all age groups.

It is very desirable that the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports is working especially on the strategy for youth education. Our strategy of human resources development for the Czech Republic cannot replace it. However, in the context of national human resources development strategy, we think that it is also important to outline the strategic vision of education.

4.4.1 Strategy for development of education of children and secondary school level youth

The current Czech education of children and secondary school level youth has a number of positive characteristics. For example, it educates a larger proportion of children of pre-school age than other EU countries on average, and a comparable proportion of youth in secondary schools. The graduates of Czech secondary schools have good results in general educational base compared to their foreign peers. The Czech education system is mainly oriented on one-off type of education with an early and narrow professional specialisation at a lower age, while the dynamics of technology development and changes in the employment structure require preparation of young people for lifelong learning already from the early age. The average period of youth education in our country is shorter by more than 2 years than the EU countries average.

Until now, the education in Czech schools still remains oriented on memorising large amounts of information, often of a fragmentary nature. The primary and secondary schools offer limited variety of educational routes and their curriculum is rather unified. Neither special care for talents, nor care for people with specific needs is sufficiently developed.

The education of Czech youth is little connected to the needs of employers. The conservatism of education, particularly harmful in vocational education, has not changed yet. The near future calls for internationalisation of secondary schools, which have to provide youth with education comparable to European standards and functional also on the supranational labour market.

The primary and secondary education offer a very precious space, not yet used, for suitable education of some general procedures, problem solving methods and management, which are uselessly postponed to higher levels of education or even postgraduate adult education.

Continuation of the present development of education system would decrease the competitive position of human resources on the global labour market. It is therefore necessary to enforce without delay and implement important measures and actions, especially the following ones:

Children attending nurseries should be purposefully lead to creativity and co-operation. Their early intellectual development and talents should be stimulated.
The primary schools should lead the children first of all to understanding the general methods of problem solving, teach them how to learn and provide them with positive motivation for further education.
Instead of the content and organisation of teaching focused on the average, a progress should be made towards more differentiated demands on children according to their abilities and interests.
Grammar schools and other secondary schools have to extend the use of methods focused on problem identification and problem solving, on searching and using information, on independent work with the use of own initiative.
Vocational education, the central point of Czech secondary education, must be more connected to employers, professional and regional institutions.
In reforming the network of vocational schools, it is desirable to support the development of schools that offer different levels of vocational education and to support broader vocational education at the expense of premature specialisation.
Vocational education must be made more accessible to various age or professional groups of applicants.
It is necessary to promote European aspects in the secondary vocational education, including comparability of its outcomes.
It is strategically indispensable that the young graduates of secondary schools have better access to any level or type of tertiary education.

4.4.2. Strategy for development of tertiary education and its interaction with research

International comparisons prove that the expansion of tertiary education and the growth of its ever closer interaction with research and business present a most effective strategy for increasing national competitiveness.

Although the number of students enrolled to our universities has increased by more than two thirds over the last ten years, the number of applicants has gone up more than twice during the same period. It follows that the proportion of unsatisfied applicants has not decreased. Consequently, the valuable national resource is being literally wasted, considering that in the future the Czech Republic will never have so many young people willing and able to study, as the demographic development suggests. It is alarming that in the Czech Republic there are only 24% of twenty years old students, while the OECD average is 44%.

The difficult situation of Czech higher education and lack of financial, human and material resources are closely related to the financing and effectiveness of research and development and its integration into the system. Transformation of research and development institutions has not been finished. The strategy of concentrating financial means and human resources into several perspective fields, based on an independent audit of Czech science, delivered by a consortium of international institutions, meets with a strong refusal.

The greatest problem seems to be the disconnection of research at the Czech Academy of Sciences and the higher education. At present, less than 10% of research and development expenses goes to universities, whereas the state sector (including the Academy of Sciences) consumes almost 27%. According to the OECD data, similar allocation of financial means is not found anywhere else in Europe. At the same time, the present legislation does not allow the universities to supply know-how or any monetary or other means to joint ventures with companies oriented on technology, neither to establish such companies.

A strategy for this field has to solve all these problems simultaneously as a whole in order to be successful. Any incomplete or compromise solution may only worsen the position of the Czech Republic in terms of competitiveness.

The strategy for a speedy increasing the level of Czech higher education should be based on the following steps:

To meet the growing demand for higher education of all age groups by a substantial increase of education opportunities.
To diversify higher education and create a system of tertiary education with a varied internal structure enabling vertical and horizontal transfers.
To develop a multisource financing, involving more the future users of the value created during tertiary education (students, enterprises, businessmen, regions).
To integrate teaching, research and development in a single system, closely connected to the enterprise and business sphere, and thus strengthen the link between tertiary education and regional industry and institutions.

In order to fulfil this complex strategy we recommend especially the following measures:

It is necessary to ensure a possibility of tertiary education for every applicant who passed the state school-leaving examination.
For this reason, the tertiary education sector must be diversified and the possibility of transfers within the system in all directions must be improved.
It is necessary to support the development of education on bachelor level and present it as a valuable achievement for successful life and career.
In the near future, selected higher professional schools should be transformed into public non-university schools of higher education and their quality substantially improved.
It is indispensable to support the establishment of schools of higher education of the “Open University” type, based to a considerable extent on modern distance learning.
In the whole system of higher education, elements should be introduced which are typical for successful and innovative foreign schools of higher education or universities, such as evaluation of teachers by students, removal of the seniority-based Central-European system of pedagogical titles, general introduction of the system of transferable credits, methods oriented on problem solving, interactive or case teaching.
The boards of directors of public universities should be extended by the representatives of private sector and other employers, in order to prevent potential difficulties with the employment of the growing number of graduates.
It is considered absolutely necessary to develop the multisource financing of tertiary education and schools of higher education by means of tax adjustment, by allowing the schools to invest in business companies and co-operatives, by means of socially sensitive school fees and state loans to students, payable after completing the studies and achieving an appropriate salary level.
The teaching and research capacity of schools of higher education should be reinforced without delay by the research and pedagogical capacities of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The protection and selection of research teams and institutions when implementing this measure should be solved with the help of an independent international audit of disciplines and institutions.
It is considered necessary to integrate budget chapters for financing research and development (schools of higher education, grant agencies and the Czech Academy of Sciences) into a single government body at the ministerial level.

4.4.3. Strategy for the development of teachers

A substantial and fast change of teaching and other education methods is the basic presumption for a successful national strategy of human resources development. The teachers must be progressive in their knowledge as well as work methods. The present time requires an everyday use of ICT, experience in new teaching methods, an access to new information and high literacy in many other fields, which were ignored in the past or simply did not exist. The language proficiency of teachers has started to play a completely different role over the last decade. Especially teachers at higher levels of the system need to have access to the latest “international” information and specialised literature as well as to the Internet information knowledge base.

However, the position of teachers is very complicated, because their social situation does not reach the needed level. Low salaries literally discourage talented individuals. The current system of teacher employment is very conservative. Particularly at universities, the system of seniority exclusiveness often obstructs acceptance and self-fulfilment of younger pedagogues, who excel at innovative thinking and are closest to new technologies and information. Similar reasons prevent experienced practitioners from entering educational roles and professions.

To ensure that all teachers are at least “a mile ahead” will be very difficult. The proposed measures require a substantial support:

It is necessary to finish and implement the programme of “Professional development of pedagogues”, which should fully respond to challenges and expectations coming from real life.
The concept of teaching must be understood in broader terms than it has been so far. Especially practical subjects should be taught by practitioners with experience in the respective fields. Teaching at schools should become a matter of prestige for top mangers, businessmen and other experts.
Successful senior experts and practitioners should be allowed to become teachers and to acquire without delay an adequate salary and position if they are successful in teaching.
Leading personalities and top management teams in education are the key to the actual teachers development, therefore they must be provided with a type of education similar to that of top managers in the sphere of economy.
Salaries of teachers should increase steadily to become attractive for talented experts and young pedagogues.

4.4.4. Strategy for the development of lifelong learning

The essential idea of lifelong learning promotes that everybody should have the easiest possible access to various forms of lifelong learning and should be adequately motivated and supported. Such perspective of learning includes individual and social development of all kinds and forms: formally at schools and institutions of vocational and tertiary education including adult education, or informally at home, at work place or in a community, etc.

The domestic and international indicators of lifelong learning show that especially our adult education develops too slowly and with poor results. Only one fourth of Czech businesses holds education and training to be the prior component of their personnel policy and the human resources development to be an integral part of their development strategy. Most sectors lack consistent education and training of the staff. The expenditures on education in Czech businesses and other organisations are less than half, compared to the same expenses in the Western European countries. Only every twentieth job applicant participates in retraining. Despite the increasing proportion of older generation in population, there has been no considerable development in their further education. The above mentioned reasons indicate an urgent need for a resolute turn. The following measures will be necessary:

To specify the unclear responsibilities in various fields of adult education and to acknowledge lifelong learning as a key aspect of the national, regional, business and individual development.
To establish financial and non-financial support of lifelong learning using the experience of the successful EU countries.
To motivate secondary schools, higher professional schools and universities to a larger use of their educational capacities for further education.
To devise and implement consistent accreditation mechanisms for educational programmes and institutions.
To encourage building of compatible and accessible databases listing providers of various lifelong learning forms and programmes.

4.5 Management of Human Resource Development for the Czech Republic

4.5.1 National Management of Human Resource Development

While the need to radically increase the level of Czech human resources and adapt it to the present challenges require conceptual ability, comprehensiveness and ability for action of a national system of human resource management, in the Czech Republic the following undesirable phenomena can be encountered: The whole area is governed by a distinct departmentalisation, the division of responsibilities among different sectors is dubious, social partners cannot fully defend perspective interests of their clients and strategic management is displaced by emergencies in the area of employment. Different social and professional groups enforce their interests and often present the blocking force in relation to necessary changes. Chronic drawbacks are not removed and strategically important recommendations of experts are not implemented. The problem of cross-sector project management of significant HRD activities and their financing from local sources and EU funds is not solved. The public is very little engaged in the issue of human resource development.

The future however shows clearly the importance of ability to build and effectively use societal networks for strategic multi-subject management, involving governmental bodies, social partners, school and other education and training institution representatives, professional representations, students and pupils, consulting and training agencies, as well as independent experts and others. This ability will be the key factor deciding to what extent the different countries can meet global challenges related to employment on their territories.

In the interest of creating such a national multi-subject management of human resource development one of the possible organisational options is recommended as follows:

Establish a National Council for Human Resource Development, which would focus on the development of strategic concepts and on co-ordination in this area. The Council should be chaired by the minister responsible for the issues of employment and its members should be, besides representatives of relevant sectors and social partners, renowned experts.
Further establish an Executive Committee for Human Resource Development, which would focus on the selection and financing concrete programmes and projects, and their management. The Committee would also operate under the authority of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic. This Executive Committee will contribute to the co-ordination of monitoring committees for the implementation of operational programmes of the EU Structural Funds according to the General Regulations for the Structural Funds.
Build an Information and Communication Network for Human Resource Development, which will provide to the wide public electronic and other forms of access to information on human resource development in the Czech Republic, in the EU and wider international context, provide consulting, analytical and learning functions. It will further support a communication environment for public discussions on the issues and strategies of human resource development, co-ordinate these discussions and initiate them. The network will also provide the users information on job and career opportunities, perspectives of fields and occupations, on the supply and opportunities of education and training, possibilities of financial support, etc. If appropriate, it will contribute to linking and co-ordination of single networks of similar orientation.
The functions of the National Training Fund ought to be adapted so that it can offer expert, co-ordination and partly service background to the above institutional bodies. Such orientation would enable an effective use of the human capital, experience and means of the National Training Fund for the needs of national management of human resource development. The implementation of a national management of human resource development requires an amendment of legal definition of responsibilities of the different bodies of state administration in the area of human resource development, namely in fields of adult training and lifelong learning. In order to guarantee compatibility of national structures with the policies implemented by the European Union and with the use of the European Social Fund it will be necessary to assign one department responsible for the whole area of human resource development. This umbrella function should be assigned to the ministry responsible for employment, i.e. the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

In relation to the proposed measures, preparation of concrete organisational, legal and personnel proposals and projects to establish the National Council for Human Resource Development, the Executive Committee and the Information and Communication Network for Human Resource Development needs to be started.

4.5.2 System of regional development of human resources and their attractiveness for investors

At present the regional economies undergo an extensive and deep transformation. In the regions this is often accompanied by significant disparities, because even at the high unemployment rate the demand for employees with qualifications required by the developing fields of business and crafts is not satisfied.

The regional management of human resource development until now (i.e. primarily district based) has been hindered by the legal and psychological boundaries of divided responsibilities for the issues of employment, education and training (often dealt with by the educators only), social support, etc. The social partners as well are insufficiently involved in the regional management of human resource development, still often limited by the too rigid sector structures and their narrow institutional interests. The regional management of human resource development based on active participation of all sectors and social partners is in most cases attempted only in crisis situations.

Next year the newly established regional bodies will take over substantial responsibilities for education, including upper secondary education. In the new regions the role of higher professional schools and above all universities will increase, as they will have to very quickly meet the level of similar schools in the EU.

The Czech regions today based on the district structure compete among themselves already for financial and human resources and in attracting investors. This issue will become more intense and acquire a new form when the new regions will have to co-operate in the frame of the European NUTS 2, involving in most cases two to three Czech regions. This problem will require a new strategy based on strengthening co-operation among regions, on seeking procedures for dispute resolution, and on support of integration tendencies. A super-regional, i.e. wider regional and also national cohesion and co-operation will gain importance and place new demands on the national management of human resource development.

Proposed activities are directed mainly to the following measures:

At the level of regions it is necessary to build without delay a system of multi-subject management of human resource development, similar to the national level.
As one of the first steps, regional councils for human resource development should be established, including also the social partners. Besides the function to develop, provide for and jointly implement a strategy of human resource development in the regions, these councils should guarantee to the investors an essential framework of social peace in the given region.
In the regions it is of key importance to build centres of excellence and intellectual support for business and public services as one of major tools for recruiting top experts and talented human resources for the region.
The new regions will have to become centres connecting the whole system of education and training with the business practice, public service and voluntary organisations.
As a base to solve serious problems related to regional unemployment, an effective system of regional guidance, counselling, training, information and job placement services needs to be developed.
It is necessary to strengthen the regional development agencies, whose foundations have been laid already, providing this opportunity in all newly established regions.
In relation to establishing the new regional structures it is necessary to quickly provide extensive training for the new regional bodies, also with respect to the development of human resources and creating conditions for their employment in the current global environment.

4.6 Financing the development of human resources – new mechanisms and resources

The problem of lack of financial means for the development of human resources belongs to critical limitations of the Czech Republic. Even if a consistent priority of education, training and other activities leading to an increased level of human resources is successfully asserted, it will be very difficult to match the advantage of richer countries. Despite that the education and training are already one of the priorities of public finance, it is not sustainable for the future to finance the challenges, tasks and increasing demands placed on the area of human resource development predominantly from public sources. However in the Czech society there is still a number of legal, administrative and economic barriers preventing higher participation of the private sector (households and enterprises) in financing human resource development.

The expenditure of Czech enterprises on the continuing training of employees is low compared to the enterprise expenditure in the developed countries, even though the enterprises show interest in increasing qualifications of their employees. Moreover at present, when too many companies of all sizes balance on the edge of their existence, any pressure on their additional expenses might be fatal not only for them but also for their employees. That could finally impact negatively on both the public budgets and the overall social and political situation in the country.

There is also a number of barriers to higher involvement of individuals in financing education and training. Households with average and lower incomes, having two or more children, have a very limited possibility to reallocate their sources in the direction of increased spending on education and training. It is therefore important to mind very carefully that the lack of financial means in the families with children is not resulting in impeding access to education and training for the so demanded and precious talents.

The offer of products on financial markets aimed at financing education and training is still very limited in the Czech Republic. Methods of allocation of resources to the most suitable projects, which would be selected in the context of a long-term national strategy for human resource development, have not been sufficiently mastered. This applies to both the public budgets, as well as budgets of companies and other organisations. Modern methods of management common not only in successful companies, but also in successful European countries, are disseminated only very slowly in the area of macro-societal human resource development, and particularly public education.

Solving the problem of financing the national human resource development requires from our point of view to adopt first of all the following measures:

When evaluating effects of investing in human resources, direct and indirect financial and non-financial effects need to be taken into account.
In the area of public budgets it is necessary to build a wide political consensus on investment priorities in the development of human resources.
In the area of public budgets the method of objective and optimised expenditure should be disseminated, and by using such methods the expenses on the different programmes, projects and institutions should be checked and restructured.
Besides increasing expenditure on human resource development it will be important to focus on increasing the effectiveness of public and private spending and investment.
With regard to the demographic development it is desirable to give education and training the initial financial and property impulses in the form of depositing unused lands and buildings.
In the interest of an increased share of the business sector in financing education and training it is necessary to implement measures stimulating enterprises to increased investment in education and training.
As regards the financial share of individuals in education and training it is considered appropriate to begin a systematic preparation of projects to implement for instance mixed forms of financing education and training, introduction of tuition fees in tertiary education in the form of an additional tax after achieving an acceptable level of income, similar systems to support adult education and training, etc.
Concerning financial support of socially disadvantaged pupils and students it is seen as necessary to assess current national or regional systems of providing scholarships and social benefits, and to elaborate a project of state support to private financing of scholarships and grants for students.
Concerning financial and material support of schools and other education and training institutions provided by enterprises it is necessary to initiate Czech schools, so that they utilise more fundraising common in the world, and to create space for public schools, so that they can adapt better to the needs of firms and other organisations, who in turn can become their donors.
Concerning the international financing of human resource development (EU, IMF, World Bank, etc.) it is necessary to further disseminate information to a wide circle of institutions and their staff on how to access these sources and how to administer and use them properly.
Non-public education and training institutions at the tertiary level should be perceived as a useful partner for achieving desirable changes. Also these institutions should have the possibility to apply for initial state deposits in the form of public owned lands and buildings.
If this strategy is implemented, pressures to diversify educational supply in the tertiary sector can be expected. In support of the desired differentiation the existing institutional and budgetary barriers will need to be removed (voluntary decrease of financial standards, inadequately defined accreditation requirements, etc.).

In conclusion it needs to be repeatedly emphasised that the issue of financing human resource development requires not only increased expenditure, but also and above all a correct allocation of resources and highly qualified management of their use.

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EMP/SKILLS - Skills and Employability Department