White-collar workers want more training

A survey conducted for FTF, the Danish white-collar workers' confederation, and published in August 1998, shows a very strong wish for further and supplementary training among its members, who regard training as part of their workplace culture.

Members of the trade unions affiliated to the Confederation of Salaried Employees and Civil Servants in Denmark (Funktionærernes og Tjenestemændenes Fællesråd, FTF) take a very positive view of supplementary and further training. They are proponents of training in general, and they would like to become better at their work. These are the findings of a survey carried out for the FTF by the Vocational and Adult Training Group at Roskilde University and published in August 1998. The questionnaire survey covered a total of 3,252 members and, in addition, a number of qualitative interviews were conducted with businesses, schools and union members. Among the FTF's largest member groups are: primary school teachers; nurses and kindergarten teachers and youth centre teachers in the public sector; and salaried employees in the private financial services sector.

According to the survey, FTF members' attitude to supplementary training generally seems to be more positive than the findings shown by equivalent analyses of other trade and professional groups. Training is simply regarded by FTF members as part of the culture at the workplace. Therefore, FTF members do not feel that there are personal obstacles to their participation in supplementary and further training. The barriers are lack of resources to pay for training expenses and temporary cover while they are away on a training course.

The survey, which covers 1996, indicates that 49% of FTF members participated in supplementary and further training in the course of the year. Of these people, one third participated in training programmes of between one day's and two weeks' duration. Consequently, only a minority of FTF members participated in long training programmes. Nearly 90% of members had either not participated in any training at all or only in a short supplementary training course of less than one week's duration.

The issue of supplementary and further training has become increasingly important to the players on the Danish labour market in recent years. The predominant attitude is that a prerequisite for continued economic growth and a high rate of employment is a constantly higher level of training and education. Otherwise, Danish trade and industry will not be able to meet international competition. The survey may be seen as an attempt to document both the wish and the need for supplementary training among the FTF's member groups.