Training and knowledge transfer in the European automotive industry

This chapter offers some reflections on training and knowledge transfer in the European automotive industry. They are based on insights derived from a series of research and networking projects supported by the European Commission (EC), the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) and the Association of Automotive Suppliers in Europe (CLEPA) in the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s. ¹ Training the workforce, at all levels, has become a matter of strategic importance in view of the manifold changes taking place in the industry. New skills are required to deal with these changes. On the one hand, there are new skills required in relation to the introduction of new product features (many of them related to the use of electronics), new materials (plastics, aluminium) and new levels of mechanization and automation. On the other hand, there are new skills required because of organizational changes taking place in the industry. The first type of skills can usually be acquired by traditional training measures, sometimes in combination with on-the-job learning. They are skills of the technical know-how type. Skills of the second type are mainly inter-personal in nature: skills in working together with other people, leadership skills, communicative skills, skills in cooperating across the boundaries both of organizations and of countries. This chapter is mainly concerned with training and knowledge transfer related to skills of the second type: training related to organizational changes in the industry.