Framework of Actions for the Lifelong Development of Competencies and Qualifications

Framework of Actions for the Lifelong Development of Competencies and Qualifications - Denmark

In March 2002, the European social partners adopted a framework of actions for the lifelong development of competences and qualifications, as a contribution to the implementation of the Lisbon strategy.

Within the Danish model social partners together develop solutions to new challenges in education and training. Together with public authorities at various levels these challenges are also met within a large number of bodies and councils that have been established to take care of different parts of education and training. As social partners have worked together in bipartite or tripartite settings for years – new challenges are easily identified. Both bipartite and tripartite cooperation for finding solutions to competence development are therefore dynamic and renewed constantly.

During the autumn of 2002 and the spring of 2003 a draft new law supporting career guidance as well as guidance for education and training was discussed with social partners and finally agreed upon in parliament. The law introduces independent centres for young people on their way to upper secondary and the tertiary level. It also introduces career guidance as an objective within the individual education and training. The overall objective is to set the basis for lifelong learning and for competences needed on the labour market as well as helping adults to return to education and training. A new initiative on guidance for the employed will be launched in the spring of 2004.

The social partners, including the local and regional authorities, co-operate with the Ministry of Education, sharing the responsibility for the dual system in Vocational Education and Training. This co-operation guarantees a dynamic development and tailoring of vocational education and training in step with the rapidly changing qualification needs of trade and industry. To ensure the possibility of a formal vocational education for adults with very rudimentary or no education, basic adult education (upper secondary) has been introduced. It implies that an adult with experience within a specific area of work can have his or her informal qualifications (real competences) assessed and compared with the formal goals for a vocational education. An individually designed educational plan is developed, through which the adult can achieve the remaining qualifications, thus matching the full set of educational goals for that particular education.

Management is an important part of how we develop our society, and therefore everyone should learn the basics. It is not only leaders and managers who need to know about leadership and management. Management is something we all are influenced by in our working lives – either because we chose to become leaders or because we submitted to management. Knowledge of management must therefore be a part at the curriculum of every educational level, from primary school to higher education. The social partners work together on models to implement management at different educational levels.

In March 2004, collective bargaining in Denmark's main private sector bargaining area was concluded when the central organisations, the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) and the Confederation of Danish Employers (DA), signed a three- year overall compromise settlement drawn up by the Public Conciliation Service, which largely follows the lines of an agreement reached in the industry sector in February. In the agreement there is a special commitment to discussing issues related to Globalisation and especially Lifelong Learning issues.

The agreement states that: “Globalisation necessitates an adaptation of companies’ competitiveness, amongst other things by means of a strengthening of the flexibility as well as the adaptability of the labour market and workers’ skills. LO and DA emphasise a strengthening of the international competitiveness of Danish companies and want to contribute to supporting a stable labour market through the continuous development of an efficient system of cooperation and bargaining which is supported by a national vocational training system for the labour market which is adapted to the new requirements arising through globalisation.”

In autumn 2004, the Danish government and social partners set up a committee which, over the next 12 months, will undertake a thorough review of current provision in the field of adult and continuing vocational training (CVT). In August, the Prime Minister invited the social partners to talks about how to upgrade the competences of Danish workers in order to deal with the effects of globalisation. The message of the Prime Minister was that, if Denmark is to continue to be one of the wealthiest countries in the world and at the same time secure a relatively even distribution of incomes, an important prerequisite will be a high level of knowledge

and competences throughout the entire labour force and a flexible labour market. All social partners responsible for this report participated in this committee.

In June 2003 the new overall State Personnel and Management policy was published. According to this policy, development of staff members’ competences/skills is essential. Policy headings about development of staff are: strategic and systematic skills enhancement is a mutual responsibility; skills enhancement creates security in the job market; a holistic view, creativity and renewal are important competences; unique human potential/talent must be expressed by versatile career possibilities for all; skilled staff members should be recognised and rewarded.

The social partners’ agreement on a “Competence package” has as its leading principle to encourage interaction between negotiated agreements, structures, funds and practice pertaining to competence development as well as a coherence between competence development, personnel policy and wage policy. The most important element in the agreement is that strategic and systematic competence development takes place within the individual institution for all employees. Both managers and employees must take responsibility to ensure a strengthened development of competences that guarantee the needs of the institutions as well as the individual and professional enhancement of the employee. Employee development interviews are held once yearly, during which developmental goals are agreed upon and evaluated. Additionally, work councils should agree upon principles for the strategic and systematic competence development of the workplace as a whole.

In the overall collective agreement between management and labour made in 2002 for a three-year period the social partners agree to an arrangement on the development of competence (annex 5.2 official mediator proposal of 31 March 2002).

The agreement stipulates that the task for development of competence is to commit management and labour to give high priority to an increase in competence development.

It further demands that the necessary steps are taken vis-à-vis all workers to secure development of competences. An individual task for potentiality has to be developed for each worker. The obligations are mutual for both management and workers.

The social partners at the local level have asked an independent consultant (OPUS) to evaluate the agreement. The independent consultant has stated that a great deal of competence development takes place in the local public labour market. The consultant focused on seeing how task-setting for potentiality of competence has developed.

The task-setting for potentiality of competence is widely used in the local public labour market. Normally they are not very concrete - but elaborate on how to develop. When the development plans are very concrete they are in close connection with ongoing tasks. Normally there is openness connected to occupational development of competence. However, modesty is applied when the tasks relate to lack of cooperation.

Generally speaking the local labour market does not use the development plans in a strategic way - except in childcare facility institutions. Here there is a close relationship between the overall task for the institution and the individual task for each worker.

The Danish Construction Association and the Federation of Building, Construction and Woodworkers’ Union initiated a project with the title “Cooperation and lifelong learning within Construction” together with the Danish Association of Construction Architects and Danish Technological Institute in the autumn of 2003. The cooperation comprises a number of enterprises as well as a number of educational institutions offering education and training at the levels from upper secondary to low and medium circle programmes including a double pathway for people at work to obtain the same qualifications. The specific work deals with "Development of work organisation and training – development of vocational education and training and lifelong learning at a systems level". The activities will run until the end of 2006. The social partners have already developed several tools for in-company training planning.

Social partners within the “Production and Service sector” have throughout 2004 in particular focused on training offers to qualify workers to support competitiveness in production. The LEAN philosophy is at the heart of competence-development for unskilled and skilled workers. Other sectors and groups of workers have also started to apply the LEAN philosophy in order to strengthen competitiveness in the global economy. The basic concept of LEAN concentrates on no-mistakes production, waste, efficiency in adaptability and day-to-day improvements.

Social partners within the “Electricity and Plumbing sector” have agreed to develop a new coherent system for training after completion of upper secondary vocational education and training. The principle is to be able to move from basic competences to specialised competences within a given subject, e.g. from basic competence in automation to special knowledge in programmable motors. The system has been structured to allow for flexibility for the workforce and for companies in order to coordinate training activities with the strategic development of companies. Social partners agree that time spent on unnecessary subjects should be avoided.

At company level the Danish model has a long tradition of cooperating to find solutions to competence development and this is therefore often a basis for close cooperation with local or regional educational institutions.

The Danish Centre for Development of Human Resources and Quality Management (SCKK) runs a working network concerned with aspects relevant for improving the quality of employee development interviews. Participants in the network are individual state-run workplaces. The network meets regularly to share knowledge and cooperate on themes such as: strategic competence development, how to discover competence needs, developing dialogue methods for interviews, etc.

The Social Partners have carried out a joint project regarding the development of competence of commercial and clerical employees. The project focuses on experiences of good practice in a number of individual workplaces. The outcome is the communication of accounts and stories to give inspiration and knowledge about possible methods and objectives at the individual workplace. The subjects addressed include mentoring, neighbour training, establishment of networks, and mobility.

A programme for newly appointed managers is initiated in order to professionalise management at state level. An intensive training programme addresses personal leadership, personnel management, and teamwork in the management group as the first steps towards approaching lifelong learning at a managerial level.

Motivation and maintenance of staff in different age groups is considered an issue of great interest. There is general acknowledgement that the labour market situation calls attention to utilisation of the competences of staff members with several years of experience at state sector workplaces. Recently, SCKK hosted a very popular conference, which dealt with experience of policies regarding senior staff members.

Health care staff in hospitals and personal care help in older citizens’ homes have to accommodate the needs of the growing group of citizens of non-Danish origin. In order to create an efficient tool for employees to perform this task, a “Intercultural competences” course has been developed. It focuses on knowledge and understanding of different ethical and cultural values, taking into account different social norms concerning food and a person’s body. The course is offered nationwide at the 14 Social and Health Education Colleges, and it is hoped that it will enhance the process of integration of citizens of non-Danish origin.

The Centre for Development of Human Resources and Quality Management (established by the social partners of the state sector in 2000) has developed tools for assessment of developmental needs and competence development that can be administered by management and employees at individual workplaces, i.e. a digital tool for competence development and educational planning (VEPS 2000), the Competence Game, the Barometer of Competence. All workplaces are advised to carefully follow up on the use of any tool. For instance, a large Directorate within the legal area followed up on use of the Barometer by letting the employees in the different departments formulate questions and recommendations for improvements. The topics ranged from points of organisational development, improvements of working conditions and need for managerial support and attention to communication, strategies on conflict-solving, mutual feedback and formulating competence profiles and competence development plans. Plans and reorganisations will be followed up and evaluated every half year.

The Network Locomotive consists of approximately 160 private and public businesses, trade unions and educational institutions in the Vejle Region. The purpose is to exchange experiences regarding how to identify and motivate employees with inadequate reading, writing and mathematical skills. The Network Locomotive provides education in reading writing and mathematics at the primary and lower secondary educational level, to prepare the businesses’ employees for the demands of the workplaces of the future. The teaching takes place either at the place of business or at one of the centres for adult education in the region.

Grundfos A/S - a large Danish company working worldwide - has for a number of years worked with competence development and has developed a model for an overarching system within the company. Strategic development of competences is based on dialogue between management and employee. The aim is to achieve a common recognition amongst all employees of competence development. The workshops are based on three components: knowledge, know-how and values. The outset for planning is the future needs of the company. Important for success is the fact that both managers and the individual employee have to take responsibility to find solutions to the identified needs of competence development. Furthermore it is stressed that there is a systematic follow-up to the planned development of competences.

The start-up of the management-training programme 2003 has been a tremendous success. More than 2000 people from different trades and sectors have started on the management-training programme, which has been designed by the social partners from the field. Seen in a Danish context this figure is very high and it signals a huge demand for further training and education within the management area, contributing to lifelong learning for leaders and managers.

A recent survey describes the optimal learning for leaders and managers. The study clearly indicates that short-term courses in management and management-training programmes will continue to be a central form of learning. But networking with focus on management and personal coaching are also high on the priority list for the future. The survey can inspire enterprises and individuals regarding what can be done to create a good learning environment at the workplace.

The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations carried out 3 regional meetings on how to initiate competence development locally at the work place for professionals from both the private and public sector. What emerged from the meetings was the importance of the conditions for developing competences and management being one of the main drivers and obstacles to competence development at the work place. In line with the conclusion from the regional meetings a survey has been carried out on managers and to what extent managers prioritise and make room and time for developing the competences of their personnel. The survey, which is called: “The potential, ten challenges to Danish human resource managers” highlights that 60 percent of the 1,350 managers involved in the survey felt a need for development of their competences in order to carry out their job as mangers.

Local Government Denmark and the Association of Local Government Employees' Organisations are jointly involved in a number of projects that aim at creating a more attractive and more efficient workplace that produces public services of an even higher quality. One such project has focused on on-the-job learning. The main objective was to describe 10 methods to encourage on-the-job learning. The project resulted in a manual that makes it possible for every workplace to give priority to on- the-job learning. The manual was written in collaboration with the Copenhagen Business School. It is available free of charge (in Danish) at www.personaleweb.dk/4Z180I.

EMP/SKILLS - Skills and Employability Department