Confident, qualified and unlikely to quit

摘要

Europe's competitiveness, or more specifically that of the European Union (EU), is once again high on the political agenda. The perennial comparisons with the US economy have been joined in more recent years by the challenges posed by the commercial awakening of China and India. Given the difficulty the EU has in making politically awkward decisions, continuing to spend on subsidizing training interventions provides an ideal opportunity to be seen to be responding. While the EU may dream about increased labor mobility, at least until election times when economic migration fuels insecurity and costs votes, for many employers the very last thing they need to see is their best people heading off to pastures new. Clearly there is a tension between national and supra-national competitiveness dreams of the EU and its member states and the European companies whose endeavors generate wealth. A mischievous question to ask of employers, however, is "do you really want to employ only those people too under-skilled to get a job somewhere else?"