LEVERAGING TRAINING AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
IN SMES – AN OECD PROJECT
Marco Marchese, Economist (On behalf of Dr. Cristina Martinez)OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs and Local Development Local Economic and Employment Development Division [email protected] ; [email protected]
The starting point of the TSME project (I)
• 50% of small firms participated in formal CVET, compared with 90% of large firms
• Thus formal training policies risk having limited impact on SMEs.
The starting point of the TSME project (II)
• Recruitment is the main source of skills for all companies, including SMEs.
• In knowledge-based economy, though, skills upgrading is important & lack of training becomes a disadvantage for SMEs
Objectives of the project
• Characterise the types of skills development activities, formal and informal, in which SMEs participate
• Map the range of actors in the local training and skills development eco-systems
• Understand the outcomes (skills, employment, firm) of training and skills development activities
Methodology
• Quantitative data through an online firm survey (1080 firms answered)
• Qualitative data through firm interviews and workshop with stakeholders in local training ecosystems.
Geographical coverage
• East Flanders, Belgium• Zaglebie, Poland • West Midlands, UK• Ankara, Turkey • Quebec, Canada• Manitoba, Canada• Canterbury, New Zealand
Formal training vs. Knowledge Intensive Service Activities (KISA)
• Continued vocational training: formal training that employer companies set up or pay for the employees who have a working contract (leading to certification)– Vocational training courses– Workshops, lectures and seminars, job rotations and
secondments, etc.
• KISA: Learning resulting from daily activities related to work which are not organised or structured in terms of objectives, time or learning support. – e.g. interactions with co-workers, suppliers, clients,
consultants; internal work projects to improve firm processes (e.g. quality assurance)
Summary of results (I)
• SMEs use both formal and informal training but that KISA are perceived as a better source of skills and competences.
• High- and low-skilled employees have equal access to (different) training– Low-skilled: generic, routine, safety, IT– High-skilled: technical, management,
entrepreneurship, green skills. • SMEs get better outcomes out of informal
training – Divide in outcomes between low- and high-
skilled employees is smaller in KISA than in formal training
Summary of results (II)
• The case of growth-oriented SMEs (based on R&D and export)– Similar rate of participation in training – Focus on productivity enhancing skills
(business planning, management, technical) via informal training (participation rate twice as high as elsewhere)
• Motivations for SMEs’ training activities – In-house demand (new products, production
needs, financial adjustments)– External private sector activities (with
suppliers, clients)– Regulations, training policies and public
incentives
Summary of results (III)
Case study: Zaglebie, Poland
• 30% of surveyed firms did not do any training in the previous year– Main activity: compulsory occupational health and
safety training
• Main barriers – Skills identification – Lack of awareness about benefits of training – Perception of low value of training activities – Weakness of business support institutions in the region
• Training ecosystem driven by private training enterprises (tailor-made training or ESF projects)– Limited role of business associations and lack of
cooperation between SMEs and HEIs.
Key policy implications (I)
• Develop a public policy framework for the recognition of informal skills development activities
• Provide incentives for training organisations to develop special qualifications for these activities
• Prioritise productivity-enhancing skills (business planning, management, technical) for both high-skilled and low-skilled employees
• Encourage co-investment by businesses– Firms seeing training as investment and putting
market pressure to training providers
Key policy implications (II)
• Use evaluation to inform entrepreneurs and policy makers about the cost-effectiveness of different training options
• Involve actors in the local training ecosystem (esp. business associations) to enable tailoring in skills development
• Coordinate national and local level to ensure consistency in the provision of qualifications
Thank you
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