Call for papers
French social science journal Formation Emploi Continuing Training and Career Paths:
Firms at the Heart of the Challenges Special issue
Deadline for submissions: 15 April 2015
The principle of employer funding has been one of the pillars of the French system of continuing vocational training since 1971. Consequently, worker participation in continuing vocational training in France is determined largely by the characteristics of the firms that employ them.
The recently introduced Vocational Training, Employment and Social Democracy Act, which passed into law on 5 March 2014, reaffirms the role of firms in providing continuing training for workers. The purpose of the reform is twofold. Firstly, greater account is to be taken of firms’ needs and practices in the area of continuing training in order to improve their competitiveness. Secondly, inequalities in access to continuing education are to be reduced in order to secure the individual career paths of both workers and job-seekers.
This special issue of Formation Emploi aims to provide an up-to-date overview of the issues around continuing training and to link them with individual career paths and the parts played by the economic context, by organizations and by managerial practices. Additionally, the notion of training will be re-examined in the light of the diversity of forms of learning at work and their effects on employee’s career paths or efforts at upskilling.
Empirical studies based on quantitative or qualitative data, international studies or comparisons, papers on historical developments and literature reviews are all welcome. These papers might address issues that have received little if any attention in the literature, including the diversity of training provision and forms of learning; firms’ continuing training practices, employees’ career paths and the challenges both face; continuing vocational training systems and international comparative studies.
I. The diversity of training provision and forms of learning
Papers falling under this heading might re-examine "training" as a broader process of learning at work in all its diversity. They could explore the role of organizations and technological change as well as individual motivations in the learning process and the emergence of occupational identities.
They could also investigate the organizational aspects of life-long learning in terms of strategic human resource management (recruitment policies, employee skill development, strategic planning etc.)
II. Continuing training, organizations and career paths: what practices, what challenges?
Papers falling under this heading could address a range of issues related to the role of continuing vocational training for workers and firms. They could examine the various types of
"benefits" for firms (integration, productivity, innovation, organizational change, turnover reduction, etc.) and for workers. They could also focus on inequalities between occupations in
lifelong learning, on social dialogue in companies around continuing education or on novel corporate practices in this area.
Particular attention will be paid to papers that address these questions by taking account of firms’ economic, regional or social context as well by examining their management and HRM policies (flexibilization, reorganizations, restructurings, transition to the digital economy, positioning in the value chain, etc.)
III. Continuing education and training systems : an international perspective Continuing education and training policies occupy a prominent position in the Europe 2020 strategy. This comprehensive EU programme reaffirms the strategic objectives for continuing education and training, particularly in terms of access to on-the-job training and the quality of education and training.
Adopting an international perspective will enable us take a step back from the French debate.
How are reforms progressing at national level? What are the implications for institutional frameworks, corporate practices and individual career paths in the member states?
Finally, advances in the field of training are measured by means of indicators and benchmarks that are supposed to contribute to the development of public policies. How, on the basis of more detailed empirical investigations of national experiences, can the relevance of these indicators be assessed and what alternative vision might be offered? How should public policies towards firms be evaluated?
The list of topics above is not exhaustive. Authors are invited to submit their papers on the subject of ‘Firms and continuing training’ if they consider them relevant.
All articles have to conform to our editorial guidelines (11 pages maximum).
Please send them to the lead editor : : vergnies@cereq.fr : 00 334.91.13.28.17
It may be useful to contact the coordinators of the special issue beforehand: melnik@cereq.fr or the lead editor.
