Report 3 Map of Training Vocational Needs in the Partners’ Countries EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Report 3 documents the research carried out within the SOLE Project about training-needs analysis in the partner countries.

Training needs analysis is an essential stage of the learning process and the preliminary phase of the learning project itself.
This kind of research is necessary to define the gap between the human resources preparation and the actual needs of the labour market and, consequently, to adjust the training project to the type of professional preparation needed. Training-needs analysis is therefore closely connected to the human resources management policy: it is the link between training and productive systems, the continuous training of new skills according to the demands of the more and more complex labour market.
The SOLE Project training-needs analysis in the partner countries was developed in three phases.

The first phase, methodical reflection about tools and fields of research (e.g., the choice of the organizations/institutions to involve in the data collecting), has resulted in two questionnaires. The first questionnaire is divided into two sections, each one consisting of six questions: the first, more general, deals with the researches in the single countries, to both the harmony between the resulting data and the training policies, and to the harmony between these policies and the new EU orientation; the second section was filled in according to the competency, personal inclination and opinion of the compiler as a “special witness” of his research field.
On the other hand, the second questionnaire was focused on training needs and the actual developement of new opportunities which e-learning methodology provides.

During the second phase the questionnaires were distributed to the heads of educational research, training and human resources management in the organizations/institutions of the partner countries.

The third phase consisted of the collecting, processing and analysis of the resulting data from the questionnaires, and resulted in the writing of report 3.
Apart from the specific data deriving from the different levels at which the research was conducted, this survey highlights some tendencies and some criticality across all the partner countries.
The general tendency emerges clearly, redefining professional figures by a new set of skills through many different areas, such as ICT, linguistical, social, organizational, and skills related to the juridical, economic and monetary integration within the EU. This redefinition necessarily leads to a perspective of lifelong learning which would guarantee a constant adjustment of abilities to the continuous changes in the labour market.
The main criticalities can be observed in the legislative domain in which, especially in some countries, one observes an excessive gap in comparison with the community orientation and the new market’s need of flexibility.
In a perspective that assumes a higher level of training among the young, another critical point is the increase of compulsory schooling.

This is a product of the SOLE Project partnership, developed by Roma 3 University (Rome, Italy): Franceso Mancuso, Giuditta Alessandrini.

English version provided by Roma 3 University.

© The content of the SOLE Project - “Leonardo da Vinci” Programme, Contract I/01/B/F/PP-120550 - can be freely used by Schools, Universities and Training Institution provided that the SOLE logo is maintained and the source fully cited.
No part can be published for commercial use without formal permission of the Project promoter.