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Skill Shortages in Britain and Germany

Skill Shortages in Britain and Germany British firms attach more weight to hands onexperience than to formal qualifications. Theymanage to cope with lower proportions of skilledlabour than those required by correspondingGerman firms, without lowering quality of output,mainly by optimising the allocation of their limitedstocks of skill between various tasks. Theyconcentrate on retraining labour which is alreadyskilled, whereas German employers offer moreapprentice training and wider retrainingopportunities. In response to falling numbers ofschoolleavers, British employers use skilledfemales, whereas German firms are recruitingextra skilled manual labour from East Germany andRomania. As a result of greater certification,German firms have to deal with trade unionpressure for linkages between pay and qualifications,even when these are not really required for the job.They also face stronger opposition from tradeunions to shiftwork, and enjoy fewer Governmenttraining subsidies than British firms. Younger Britishworkers are beginning to acquire qualifications, butit will be many years before Britains stock ofexamined skills approaches that of Germany. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png International Journal of Manpower Emerald Publishing

Skill Shortages in Britain and Germany

Hart, Peter E.; Shipman, Alan
International Journal of Manpower , Volume 12 (4): 7 – Apr 1, 1991
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References (8)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
0143-7720
DOI
10.1108/01437729110144439
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

British firms attach more weight to hands onexperience than to formal qualifications. Theymanage to cope with lower proportions of skilledlabour than those required by correspondingGerman firms, without lowering quality of output,mainly by optimising the allocation of their limitedstocks of skill between various tasks. Theyconcentrate on retraining labour which is alreadyskilled, whereas German employers offer moreapprentice training and wider retrainingopportunities. In response to falling numbers ofschoolleavers, British employers use skilledfemales, whereas German firms are recruitingextra skilled manual labour from East Germany andRomania. As a result of greater certification,German firms have to deal with trade unionpressure for linkages between pay and qualifications,even when these are not really required for the job.They also face stronger opposition from tradeunions to shiftwork, and enjoy fewer Governmenttraining subsidies than British firms. Younger Britishworkers are beginning to acquire qualifications, butit will be many years before Britains stock ofexamined skills approaches that of Germany.

Journal

International Journal of Manpower – Emerald Publishing

Published: Apr 1, 1991

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