In 2010 the European Union adopted a new growth and development strategy, Europe 2020, in response to the global financial crisis that, started the previous year, still makes its effects felt today. Ever since, economic recovery has been limited in several European countries, and growth models anchored in neoliberal principles (e.g. privatization, free trade, deregulation and fiscal austerity) have been put under quest. So, while the above quote from Europe 2020 is still topical, additional long-term challenges now include: the raise of populist tendencies that destabilized party relations and political ideologies all across Europe, the decision of the United Kingdom to trig Article 50 and leave the EU by 2019, but also the exacerbation of religious conflicts, extremisms and warfare worldwide, pushing an ever-increasing number of citizens to escape poor economic conditions, political crisis and war to seek alternative life prospects, particularly in Europe. Against this background, continuous trust on people skills and up-skilling pathways as a panacea creates even stronger convergence between adult education and learning, and active labour market policies. The scope of this chapter is to critically reflect on the conceptual underpinning of Europe 2020, namely the Human Capital (HC) paradigm, and discuss its potential benefits and limitations to support full economic and social recovery in Europe. In the next section, I revisit the developments in European policy that lead from Europe 2020 to the approval in 2016 of the Upskilling Pathways: New Opportunities for Adults. Then, I explore the relations between HC theory and Human Resource Management (HRM) to shed light on the conceptual underpinning of an increased interest in investing in people as human resources. Against this background, I look at the rate of participation in education and training by employed people and the main cost- and job-related obstacles to participants such arrangements. Following, I look at the arrangements to increase employer investment in employee training that were place in the year 2000s in selected European countries, and present recent models suggesting that more nuanced analysis shall be sensitive to the variety of market economies and welfare state regimes matching to comprehend differences in adult education and training and (active) labour market policies across European countries, and how these may affect governments-employment arrangements to invest in human resources. Finally, I conclude this chapter with a few remarks on what presented, and suggest that the most beneficial government arrangements are those that favour HRM strategies built on a shared social commitment towards workers’ development. These have the potential to increase employer expenditure on employee training, and also to produce a better return on investment in education and training for both enterprises and individuals.
Kritická reflexe evropského projektu prohlubování dovedností, jeho myšlenkových kořenů a otázky investic do lidských zdrojů
milana, Marcella
2018-01-01
Abstract
In 2010 the European Union adopted a new growth and development strategy, Europe 2020, in response to the global financial crisis that, started the previous year, still makes its effects felt today. Ever since, economic recovery has been limited in several European countries, and growth models anchored in neoliberal principles (e.g. privatization, free trade, deregulation and fiscal austerity) have been put under quest. So, while the above quote from Europe 2020 is still topical, additional long-term challenges now include: the raise of populist tendencies that destabilized party relations and political ideologies all across Europe, the decision of the United Kingdom to trig Article 50 and leave the EU by 2019, but also the exacerbation of religious conflicts, extremisms and warfare worldwide, pushing an ever-increasing number of citizens to escape poor economic conditions, political crisis and war to seek alternative life prospects, particularly in Europe. Against this background, continuous trust on people skills and up-skilling pathways as a panacea creates even stronger convergence between adult education and learning, and active labour market policies. The scope of this chapter is to critically reflect on the conceptual underpinning of Europe 2020, namely the Human Capital (HC) paradigm, and discuss its potential benefits and limitations to support full economic and social recovery in Europe. In the next section, I revisit the developments in European policy that lead from Europe 2020 to the approval in 2016 of the Upskilling Pathways: New Opportunities for Adults. Then, I explore the relations between HC theory and Human Resource Management (HRM) to shed light on the conceptual underpinning of an increased interest in investing in people as human resources. Against this background, I look at the rate of participation in education and training by employed people and the main cost- and job-related obstacles to participants such arrangements. Following, I look at the arrangements to increase employer investment in employee training that were place in the year 2000s in selected European countries, and present recent models suggesting that more nuanced analysis shall be sensitive to the variety of market economies and welfare state regimes matching to comprehend differences in adult education and training and (active) labour market policies across European countries, and how these may affect governments-employment arrangements to invest in human resources. Finally, I conclude this chapter with a few remarks on what presented, and suggest that the most beneficial government arrangements are those that favour HRM strategies built on a shared social commitment towards workers’ development. These have the potential to increase employer expenditure on employee training, and also to produce a better return on investment in education and training for both enterprises and individuals.
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