Further Training in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (Austria)
通过对60家奥地利中小企业的访谈，根据企业使用继续培训的频率将其分为五组，发现每组需要不同的营销和宣传方式，并分析了影响培训态度的因素。
FURTHER TRAINING(*) IN SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES [AUSTRIA] The Institute of Educational Research for the Economy, in Vienna, carried out sixty interviews with managers of small companies with between five and one hundred employees. The researchers gathered data concerning the development of the companies (that is, changes having occured in the past, their strong and weak points, the companies' aims and expectations for the future), the importance of learning, the organization of internal further training, and its connection with the companies' development. This information was used to divide the companies into five groups, depending on their frequency of utilizing further training measures. As a result, practical assistance can be offered to institutes providing external further vocational training, since each of the five groups needs a different kind of marketing and publicity. The most outstanding changes mentioned by the companies were: * introduction of electronic data processing (EDP), * enlargement and/or reconstruction of the storehouse, or the office(s), and the opening of new branch offices, * introduction of new technologies and new equipment in the production process, product innovations, or an increase in the number of employees and expanded production, * introduction of new intermediate ranks into the company's hierarchy (master craftsman, foreman, etc.), and * changes in the management (e.g., successor takes up the former manager's office). The most important current problems of the small companies are: * underutilization and financial problems, * problems with staff members, such as lack of motivation for further training and lack of identification of the staff with the company, * management problems, * organizational problems, and * lack of technical and especially commercial knowledge on the part of the owners and lack of qualifications in the employees. Usually an attempt is made to solve these problems by having recourse to old solutions, through supreme effort, and so forth. As a result, there is hardly any time for formulating goals, engaging in long-term planning, and cultivating new visions for a company future. The interviews often gave a very restricted meaning to the concepts learning and (training) and associated them with words like school, basic knowledge, theory that cannot be put into practice, attitude posed an obstacle for consulting in regard to management and training measures. The survey, which covered all of Austria, shows that further education in small enterprises mainly consists of attending external special courses for the branch in question, of attending courses offered by producers , of reading job-oriented literature, and of going to trade fairs. On an internal level, on-the-job training programs and introductory courses on new machines are most frequently used. Only a few companies offer internal courses. Usually, these are job-oriented programs with instructors sent by the producers and traders, or sales training activities. The groups which most often attend further training courses are managers and sales and EDP personnel. With regard to factors influencing the attitude towards further education, on the whole it can be said that the likelihood of using further education in small enterprises mainly depends on: * the innovativeness of the branch the company belongs to, * the specificity of the visions for the future and the lenght of the planning horizon. * the profile of the employee and his or her qualifications and willingness to work as perceived by the employer, * the degree to which the staff can cope with stress at work (daily business has priority), and * the age of the employer and his own past experience with education and training (including formal schooling). …