Industrial Training in The Netherlands: A Comparison with Some Other EC Countries

The substantial differences in industrial training participation rates and costs at industry level are focused on. Data on costs and participation rates for the EC member states are presented and attention is drawn to differences in training systems among the countries, with special emphasis on The Netherlands. The important results of an extensive survey on industrial training in The Netherlands are reported. Remarkable differences between industrial sectors can be noticed, both in training intensity and in organisational structure. A framework is presented aimed at explaining these differences. The framework is applied to the Dutch data and preliminary results and recommendations are presented.