Varieties of training, qualifications and skills in long-term care: a German, Japanese and UK comparison

Working paper

This article considers training and qualifications in the long-term care sector in Germany, Japan and the UK. Each country has similar challenges of coping with increasing demand and securing staff for quality and cost-effective care. However, the three countries organise training and qualifications in very different ways. Taking the level of training and qualifications for formal care workers, there is a hierarchy, with Germany at the top, Japan in the middle and the UK at the bottom. However, if the composition of the workforce is taken into account, Germany has developed a dualistic structure with both highly and lowly trained and qualified workers; Japan has developed a relatively large proportion of moderately trained and qualified workers; and the UK workforce consists of a relatively large proportion of lowly trained and unqualified workers. Explanations and implications are considered.

Authors: Gospel, H; Nishikawa, M; Goldmann, M

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: ESRC Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE)
• Series: SKOPE Research Paper
• Place of publication: http://www.skope.ox.ac.uk/publications
• Publication date: 2011-01-01
• Edition: Publisher's version
• ISSN: 1466-1535
• Paper number: 104, November 2011
• Language: English
• Keywords: care workers; Germany; training; qualifications; Japan; UK
• Subjects: Education