Toward continuous manpower training in Quebec?

Analysts of the world of work agree that labour force skills are strategic in ensuring economic competitiveness in a global economy. Moreover, given f requent changes in employment, labour force qualification will increasingly have to be founded on a solid basic education leading to lifelong continuo us training opportunities. With the implementation of the Act to foster the development of manpower tr aining (S.Q. 1995 c. 43), debates ire Quebec about the notions of a "transf erable or qualifying" training would suggest that the Act was essentially a imed at generic academic-type training. Even though these notions were espo used in the Act, they did not translate into particular constraints for fir ms. This article examines the training provided in recent years by Quebec f irms to develop their labour force's skills and seeks to assess the likelih ood of continuous manpower training in Quebec. Nine criteria, grouped into four major categories, are used to define innov ative as opposed to traditional or Taylorist training: the dynamics of trai ning within the firm, the link between training and work organization, the relations between school and firm, and the temporal organization of trainin g. In terms of the dynamics of training, what seems to emerge from recent expe riences is that instead of casting training activities solely in response t o environmental change, firms are becoming proactive. Strategic training pr ograms are articulated with particular company goals and are thus planned t o meet these goals. Training thus becomes an important factor in overall pl anning. Moreover, in using training as a strategic tool, managers in Quebec firms have recently realized that the sums invested in training should yie ld results. This is the idea of training as an investment. However, it is mainly through the links between training and the organizati on of work that innovative training can be seen in Quebec. What is really n ew in recent training programs is that they are most often linked to import ant changes in work organization. We are thus coming close to the idea of a skill enhancing or learning organization which facilitates learning and pe rsonal development for all its employees while continuing to transform itse lf. Innovations in workplace training also take place through closer links betw een firm and school. Either the firm becomes a place for training or it est ablishes much closer ties with the school in order to train its own staff. By referring to a transferable or qualifying training; one of the goals of the Act was to encourage training leading to a particular diploma or qualif ications, thus enhancing worker mobility. However, it must be said that thi s goal is not attained in the majority of workplace training programs, even in the most recent ones. In fact, it seems that a transferable or qualifyi ng training is still quite marginal in the wide range of company training p rograms. The more practical work-related training programs, sometimes withi n new forms of work organization, still seem to predominate over those that deal with behaviour and altitudes at work. Another characteristic of innovative training examined in this study relate s to the way that it is organized over time. In addition to being longer th an before, recent training programs are different from traditional ones whi ch were designed to respond to particular changes. This new training most o ften seeks to anticipate change and thus can be off eyed before the change occurs. However, the long-term academic-type training is still rare. In terms of an overall assessment, when the characteristics of innovative t raining are compared with those of more traditional training, it must be sa id that training in the workplace is progressing well. Although Bill 90 was consider-ed by some as a "tidying up exercise," it is part of an overall c ontext of change which will have caused firms to redefine the logic of thei r training. However, this new logic is still profoundly economistic and productivist. N otions of strategic training or training as an investment invariably entail an emphasis on high productivity, on tangible material results linked sole ly to economic goals. The new discourse on "skills," which has been gaining ground in firms as a result of the shift in government programs, is also p art of this productivist logic. For as long as people are required to make frequent changes in employment d uring their working lives, one of the challenges of workplace training in t he coming years will be to find a new balance between work-related skills a nd the basic academic-type knowledge that is necessary for workers to be ab le to learn and thus continue lifelong learning. A key aspect of lifelong learning is the link between school and firm which , henceforth, must be thought of as paths with multiple directions. Schools should recognize skills acquired through work and adapt their pedagogical methods to an adult clientele. Firms should also accept the principle of al ternating between work and studies. Firms must not only take on the respons ibility for training their labour force but also the future labour force. I n this sense, firms should be more open to academic-type training that emph asizes basic knowledge not directly related to work.