The best that can be done is to make some rather general observations on emerging
trends and some intelligent guesses as to the extent they are likely to continue. This
is done with respect to the politics of skill formation, training policy and practice,
development, and competence.
In terms of the politics of skill formation, it is clear that there is a global
consensus involving governments and international organizations on the need to
increase the level of workforce skills in line with technological developments and
the emergence of a global knowledge-based economy. However, several critics have
noted that supply-side solutions are not a panacea for labor demand deWciencies.
Moreover, Keep ( 2005 ) warns that the idea of high skills for all, often coupled with
‘best practice’ models of HRM, can be viewed as a search for happy endings to
counteract the challenges of mounting welfare burdens, declining sectors, and
growing inequalities. The analysis isXawed, he argues, because ‘knowledge work-
ers’ only exist in parts of some economies and low-paid, low-skilled occupations
prevail in many sectors. Moreover, the associated best practice model of HRM is
a ‘mirage,’ at best a ‘minority sport,’ since organizations are inclined to adopt
partially those elements of the model thatWt their strategy. The persistence of
Taylorist work organization, enthusiastically adopted in many service sector enter-
prises that optimists associate with the knowledge-based economy, means that we
are likely to see an increasing polarization of skills.
As for training policy, there is growing criticism that formal training in voca-
tional schools is failing to meet the needs of the labor market as economic
restructuring and technological changes are making traditional skills obsolete. In
Turkey, for example, graduate unemployment is 10 percentage points higher than
unemployment among unqualiWed young people and employers prefer to recruit
untrained workers than those from state-run vocational schools. In sectors like
textiles and metalworking, employers have established foundations to deliver
training suited to labor market needs but the certiWcates awarded are not recog-
nized by the state, whereas the oYcially recognized qualiWcations of the vocational
schools do not meet employers’ needs. EVorts are in place with the support of the
European Commission to bring education closer to the labor market but this case
illustrates some of the diYculties of ensuring training is appropriate. There is also
increasing recognition that the Anglo-American hegemony in HRM (Boxall 1995 :
6 ) produces inappropriate training solutions for the speciWc needs of developing
and transition economies. In recent years, there has been a spectacular increase in
interest in HRD in the Asian, Arab, and African economies, which oVer diVerent
paradigms of skill formation (Ashton et al. 2000 ).
In terms of practice, the distinction between training and development appears
to be diminishing as there is increasing acceptance that most learning is informal,
and even accidental. Training is giving way to learning and development, which
implies individuals taking responsibility for learning and provision being more
adapted to individual needs, in terms of both content and learning style. For
training, development, and competence 337