The elephant in the truck
货车里的大象
One is trade unions. They have an industry-wide view of trends that may not be available to smaller employers. They can also accompany people throughout their working lives, which may become increasingly important in a world of rising self-employment. Denmark’s tripartite system, for example, binds together employers, government and unions. Firms and unions get together to identify skills needs; collective-bargaining agreements enshrine rights to paid leave for training. The country’s famed “flexicurity” system offers unemployed workers a list of 258 vocational-training programmes.
其中之一是工会。他们拥有的全行业发展趋势视角往往是一般小型用人单位所不具备的。他们同样可以陪伴劳动者的整个职业生涯，在一个自创创业越来越多的世界中这将变得越来越重要。以丹麦的三方体系为例，将用人单位、政府和工会结合起来。企业和工会结合来确定技能需求；劳资谈判来确定培训的权利。国内享有盛名的“弹性安全”制度为失业劳动者提供了 258 种假期培训计划。
In Britain a well-regarded programme called Union Learn uses union representatives both to inform workers about training options and to liaise with employers on workers’ requests for training. Employees seem more likely to discuss shortfalls in basic skills with union representatives than with managers. An analysis by academics at Leeds University Business School shows that between 2001 and 2013 union members in Britain were a third more likely to have received training than non unionised workers.
在英国一个久负盛名被称为 Union Learn 的计划通过工会代表来告知劳动者的培训选择并将劳动者的培训要求告知用人单位。相较于用人单位，劳动者似乎将基础技能的缺失问题告知工会代表。 Leeds University Business School 的一项学术研究指出，在 2001 年到 2013 年之间，在英国参与工会的劳动者接受培训的比例比没有参加的大了大约三分之一。
The second entity is government. There is much talk about lifelong learning, though few countries are doing much about it. The Nordics fall into this less populated camp. But it is Singapore that can lay claim to the most joined-up approach with its Skills Future initiative. Employers in the city-state are asked to spell out the changes, industry by industry, that they expect to happen over the next three to five years, and to identify the skills they will need. Their answers are used to create “industry transformation maps” designed to guide individuals on where to head.
第二个实体是政府。关于终身学习的论述很多，然而没什么政府真正做了许多。北欧的许多国家在这方面落入下风。反而是新加坡政府声称通过 Skills Future 项目建立了最成熟体系。这个城邦国家要求不同行业的用人单位列明行业的发展变化，以及未来三到五年的发展趋势，然后指出他们需要的合适技能。这些答案被用于创建一个“产业变化地图”，最终服务于那些指导劳动者未来发展趋势。
