Project “SPILL” – Lifelong learning in Germany

Joint social partners initiative: “ Sozialpartnerinitiative Lebenslanges Lernen” (SPILL)
Through technological progress and innovations, adaptation processes take place everywhere and result in qualification needs for employees in general and an ageing workforce in particular.

For companies, changing needs for skills are a major challenge and require a sustainable HR development concept focusing on following aspects:

• A better training readiness of employees
• Addressing unskilled workers or workers with lower skills
• Establishing corporate structures that promote learning and
  provide target-group oriented company offers
• Ensuring thecompetitiveness and innovative capacityof enterprises andthejobsof its employees

Objectives

SPILL offered consultancy through different partners as well as networking activities to:

• Support life-long learning and qualification on all divisions and hierarchy levels
• Support the company and all parties in the workplace in development and implementation of sustainable structures and instruments of HR development
• Built a systematic competence development and qualification programme
• Analyze future needs of qualified workers and working out possible solutions

The project analysed the situation of approximately 150 companies all over Germany and implemented specific measures in most of the participating firms.

Outcome and achievements

The project published a report describing 12 companies as best practice examples.

• In five companies the project introduced measures related to analysing and increasing of employee qualification by means of skills matrices.
• Four companies introduced new forms of employee appraisals or leadership workshops in order to improve leadership skills.
• In one company the project introduced a new concept for internal communication

In total 1,500 persons participated in the programme which had an extent of 22,700 hours. New measures were introduced in 37 participating companies.

Costs

Funding by the initiative “weiter bilden” of the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and the ESF.