As part of the joint research project on Vocational Training for Temporary Agency Workers, Eurociett and UNI-Europa held a conference on the 4th December 2008 in Brussels. The event gathered close to 100 attendees, including EU decision-makers, academics and journalists. The objective of the event was to discuss the role that temporary work agencies could play in facilitating transitions in the EU labour market, with a special focus on promoting vocational training opportunities provided to temporary agency workers.

 

Portuguese MEP José Silva Peneda opened the conference. He said that vocational training for temporary agency work was a heterogeneous practice throughout the EU. Among the main challenges, he saw a need to motivate people for training and avoid early school leaving. Among the main priorities, José Silva Peneda stressed that training schemes should be more demand-driven. There is a definite need to invest in more skills enhancement, and therefore a need to involve local authorities as they are closest to the citizens. Cooperation between private employment agencies and public employment services should be promoted as both provide training opportunities to temporary agency workers. In these times of economic crisis, workers need to adapt, and the use of training can serve to boost self-confidence and minimise risks linked to change.

 

Sadiq Kwesi Boateng also presented the new “Adult Education Survey” carried out by Eurostat within the EU. In particular, he underlined the notion that non-formal education was becoming increasingly important.

 

Dr Anneleen Peeters, from IDEA Consult, then presented the overview of the study on vocational training for temporary agency workers, and, after the coffee break, she resumed presenting the six case studies. This study is the first one to provide an EU-wide overview of the training provisions of temporary agency workers. Amongst other things, it appears that the general system of vocational training must be better adapted to the specificities of the sector. Future challenges include the collaboration with other stakeholders and ensuring that the temporary agency work sector has full access to EU-funded or national programmes aimed at promoting vocational training for workers. It will also be necessary to monitor the future development of the training programmes specifically dedicated to temporary agency workers.

 

A first roundtable, chaired by Fabrice Warneck, and composed of Jacques Solovieff, from the FAF.TT [France], Adriana Stel, from the STOOF [Netherlands], Vincent Vandenameele, from the VFU-FFI [Belgium], and both Juan Solaeche and Pedro Molina, from SINDETT [Spain] outlined the current situation in their respective countries, presented the sectoral bipartite training funds established there, and the challenges faced and overcome. Objectives and achievements were discussed, and a certain consensus appeared. The need to develop training schemes in cooperation with other sectoral training funds, to carefully monitor and assess spending, and the need to react quickly to needs in the labour market were stressed.

 

After lunch, a second roundtable, chaired by Denis Pennel, concentrated on how to move forward and facilitate access to vocational training for temporary agency workers. The participants of this roundtable were Patrick Werquin, from the OECD, Annemarie Muntz, from Eurociett, Marcel Nuyten, from FNV Bondgenoten, Mario van Mierlo, from EuroCommerce, and Christiane Westphal, from the Commission. It appeared that training needs should be more focused on those needs dictated by the labour market, if it is to truly facilitate transitions. As temporary work agencies are close to the labour market, they can best identify these needs. There is therefore an important role to play for employers, in close cooperation with different partners.

 

Fabrice Warneck concluded by saying that there was a need to team-up different players, to identify needs, to start from these needs, and then promote best-practices, and finally to improve the transferability of rights, where certification is important.