Supporting continuing professional development of trainers in enterprises

Cedefop (Center for the Development of Vocational Education and Training) assigned 3s Unternehmensberatung GmbH and University Bremen to conduct a study on support mechanisms for the continuing professional development of trainers in small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) in European member states.

The aim of the study was to find out more on policies and practices that support the quality of continuous vocational education and training in SMEs through the development and updating of in-company trainers’ competences.
 

The study reviewed recent developments of policy and practice to develop competences of in-company trainers in the Member States (EU28); implemented a survey of employers and trainers in companies in 8 EU Member States (Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Spain); developed key messages and recommendations for policy-makers and identified success factors and challenges.

The study focused on internal trainers providing internal continuous vocational education and training CVET) for adults in non-formal and informal learning environments in companies. Target group was either those employees performing in-company trainings as a function within a job profile (e.g. supervisors, managers, line managers, skilled workers) or those performing training as a role and main part of their job profile (e.g. trainers specialised in education and training based on their particular training).

The company survey investigated how small and medium sized companies (SMEs) support training of their employees; how they assign training and learning facilitation functions to various groups of employees; how they identify, nominate or recruit and support trainers in companies and how they develop and upgrade their competences, etc.