Alongside investing in skills, policies also need to focus on tapping opportunities to expand skills utilisation in companies. Although some smaller organisations are technological leaders, on average, micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) can be considered to have fewer opportunities to expand skills utilisation than large enterprises. They are less likely to adopt advanced technologies, develop new, more complex products and services, enter international markets or rearrange their internal processes.
We need to encourage and support companies and MSMEs in particular to adopt a people-centred organisational culture and organisational approaches that foster their ability to improve skills utilisation and development. This would expand the importance of companies as loci of lifelong learning and – ultimately – improve their contribution to skills ecosystems. Alongside and in close connection with other skills-ecosystem stakeholders such as trade unions, education providers, authorities and public bodies, and learners and workers, employers, employers hold the key to make the skills revolution happen. To engage MSMEs, we need to encourage partnerships between them and training providers and R&D institutions. Governance structures that support interest aggregation among MSMEs and offer social partners opportunities to mediate in innovation and training-related issues would also contribute to expanding skills utilisation.
Key Cedefop publications
- Cedefop and Eurofound (2023). Fostering skills use for sustained business performance: evidence from the European Company Survey.
- Russo, G. (2022). Organisational determinants of training Cedefop working paper No 10.
- Kankaraš, M. (2021). Workplace learning: determinants and consequences: insights from the 2019 European company survey. Cedefop working paper No 7.
- Cedefop; Eurofound (2020). European Company Survey 2019: workplace practices unlocking employee potential.
- Cedefop (2020) Big skills for small companies. Briefing note.
- Cedefop (2023) Growing green: how vocational education and training can drive the green transition in agri-food Policy brief.
- Cedefop (2021). Shifting our perspectives on learning. Briefing note.
- Cedefop (forthcoming) Policies to support MSMEs to provide training. Research paper.