The EU's stated objective to make Europe ‘the most competitive and knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable growth and better jobs and greater social cohesion’ has led to an increased focus on the area of vocational education and training. This book addresses the role of trade unions in developing competence at work in eight European countries. The main objective is to explore differences in trade union strategies for competence development at wok and assess the extent to which country variation is affected by prevailing competence models, vocational training systems and social dialogue approaches.

Acknowledged national experts writing about their countries combined with an engagement of social partner institutions fulfils the book's explicit objective of assessing the scope for transfer of good practice to build capacity and improve effectiveness in this area.