• Areas of Expertise:
  • Business and society
  • Diversity
  • Employment status
  • Gender
  • Health
  • Human capital
  • Industrial change
  • Industrial relations
  • Labour market
  • Participation at work
  • Population and society
  • Quality of life
  • Quality of work
  • Social cohesion
  • Social protection
  • Time
  • Work-life balance
  • Work organisation

Human capital

Overview

Developing people's skills and competencies - as part of the investment in the capital of human resources - is essential in improving quality of work and employment. Researchindicates that policies aimed at enhancing workers' skills contribute to an improvement in employment performance.

The European working conditions surveys investigate levels of training and skills development in the workplace.

New forms of work organisation, changes in the nature of work and new technologies require new and higher levels of qualification. These include social relations and communication skills as well as occupational skills. Employment and guidance counselling is also increasingly necessary.

Lifelong learning is a vital element in employment strategies. However, it will take major efforts to achieve the 2010 reference level of 12.5% of the adult working age population participating in lifelong learning, as adopted by the European Council on 5 May 2003 and laid down in the 2003 Employment Guidelines.