Print version Recommend this page Press release
37/ 2003
Bonn, 09.10.2003
Consultants - Important for skills development in companies
External consultants can help companies recognize that a need for skills and internal continuing training can be a fundamental reason for problems with production processes or in recruiting new personnel. As an "outsider looking in," an external consultant uncovers deficits in the area of continuing training and brings them to the attention of the persons responsible within the particular company. Which is why - according to a research project01 conducted by the Federal Institute for Vocational Training (BIBB) - the work of external consultants is often the deciding factor in whether a company considers human resources development, advanced training and learning at the workplace to be important and whether and how it incorporates these issues into its corporate planning. This research project examined how consultants' knowledge and know-how can be put to use to recognize new skill trends at an early stage. A company survey conducted as part of the project showed that 46 percent of the companies surveyed recognized how important skills development is for their own operational development only after they had taken advantage of external consultancy services.
Other survey findings:
- The survey of the consultants showed that shortages of specialized skills are not so much to blame for - for example - bottlenecks in production processes. This kind of problem can be eliminated relatively quickly through training activities - for which there is an adequate offering on the market. According to the surveyed consultants, the real challenge for developing skills needed by a particular company lies in establishing and maintaining communication and cooperation throughout the work process. This requires a precise knowledge of work flows and processes, an understanding of the employees and functions involved, and the ability to cooperate with others on a goal-oriented and solution-oriented basis. According to the research findings, new skill requirements which those responsible at the particular company often do not recognize consist of specialized skills, organizational know-how and cooperation and communication skills.
- Consultants endeavor to reduce or eliminate problems and trouble spots in day-to-day work processes. They couple this task with the question whether the particular company has sufficient skills at its disposal or which skills would be necessary to avoid certain problems. A consultant's "outsider's view" helps staff directly involved in the work process overcome their "blindness" to organizational deficiencies and makes them aware of inadequate routines, obstacles to cooperation, and communication deficits in day-to-day work.
- Consultants not only help identify a company's skills and training requirements. They also encourage, shape and guide in a variety of ways the in-company learning that results from their work. Consultants serve as facilitators in conventional continuing training activities such as seminars, classes and workshops. At the same time however they also tap informal learning processes in the individual company and develop learning arrangements that are work-related, linked to work or coupled with a specific job as part of organizational design measures. In doing so, they support informal skill-teaching processes within the particular company and make them binding.
- A consultant's work will succeed only when the company involved builds its own prospects for development and only when the particular consultant can work with persons in the company who can see beyond the boundaries of their own firm and are outward-oriented and future-oriented. These individuals are key to the process of change. They are the ones who give the consultant access to their company's resources - funding, time, manpower, information and know-how.
Further information on the survey results is available in the German-language publication:
- Agnes Dietzen, Bernd Selle: Beratung in Betrieben, Referenz-Betriebs-System (RBS)- Information No. 22; available online at: www.bibb.de/redaktion/rbs/
and in two German-language articles published in the BIBB journal Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis (BWP):
- Agnes Dietzen, Bernd Selle: Qualifikationsentwicklung in betrieblichen Veränderungsprozessen. Zur Ermittlung von betrieblichem Qualifikationspotential durch Beratung. In: BWP, Vol. 3/2003, pg. 41-45
- Agnes Dietzen: Das Expertenwissen von Beratern als Beitrag zur Früherkennung der Qualifikationsentwicklung. Zur sozialen Konstitution von Qualifikation im Betrieb. In: BWP, Vol. 1/2002, pg. 17-21.
These two publications can be ordered for € 7.60 each from W. Bertelsmann Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Postfach 10 06 33, 33506 Bielefeld, Germany. Tel.: +49 521 - 911 01 11, fax: +49 521 - 911 01 19, e-mail: service@wbv.de.
