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Temporary Employment and Employability: Training Opportunities and Efforts of Temporary and Permanent Employees in Belgium

Catholic University Leuven, Belgium, anneleen.forrier{at}econ.kuleuven.ac.be

Luc Sels

Catholic University Leuven, Belgium

‘Lifetime employability’ is often put forward as an alternative to lifetime employment with the same employer. At first sight, temporary employment relations and employability go hand in hand. Temporary employment is less dramatic when it is linked to a higher employability. Opponents, however, claim that temporary employment and employability are at odds. They argue that both employers and temporary employees may be faced with dilemmas relating to the enhancement of employability through training. In this article, we deal with this question. We study the training efforts of temporary and permanent employees as well as the training opportunities offered by their respective employers. Moreover, we differentiate between different groups of temporary employees. We study this in the Belgian institutional setting. The results indicate that, although temps do largely take responsibility for their own training, they get fewer opportunities to enhance their employability than do permanent employees.

Key Words: agency work • employability • fixed-term contracts • funding of training • participation in training • temporary work • training objectives

Work, Employment & Society, Vol. 17, No. 4, 641-666 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/0950017003174003


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