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Training, task flexibility and the employability of low‐skilled workers

Jos Sanders (Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market, Maastricht University, The Netherlands)
Andries de Grip (Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market, Maastricht University, The Netherlands)

International Journal of Manpower

ISSN: 0143-7720

Article publication date: 1 January 2004

5110

Abstract

This paper analyses whether low‐skilled workers' training participation and task flexibility contribute to their firm‐internal and firm‐external mobility, and find that both training participation and task flexibility contribute only to firm‐internal employability. However, the workers' participation in training plays a much more explicit role in their firm‐internal career than their task flexibility does, as the former appears to be an important means to increase their opportunities in the firm‐internal labour market. Neither the low‐skilled workers' participation in training nor their task flexibility contributes to their external employability. Task‐flexible, low‐skilled workers are less likely to expect to be externally employable than non‐task flexible workers are. The focus of the low‐skilled workers on their firm‐internal employability can be explained by the fact that such workers usually have more opportunities to improve their position in the firm‐internal labour market than in the external labour market.

Keywords

Citation

Sanders, J. and de Grip, A. (2004), "Training, task flexibility and the employability of low‐skilled workers", International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 73-89. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720410525009

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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