Summaries
European Social Policy Reform: spill over of economic integration or European Social Model?
This contribution deals with the proposals for social reform of the European Union, which are discussed in the European Convention. The authors argue in favour of support for the proposals, not only because of the importance of the proposals as such. They also point at the fact that the integration of the European m ar kets causes two problems for the development of European social policy. On one hand the de velopment of social protection policy stays be hind the economic and monetary integration. On the other hand market compatibility requi rements have eroded the legal authority and re gulatory capacity of member states in the realm of social policy. In fact, member states have lost more control over national welfare policies than the EU has gained in transferred authority. In order to bridge the growing gap in the steering capacity with regard to welfare p o licy a better balance between the principles of the single market and the principles pursued by national welfare states is considered to be necessary.
Combinations of working and learning among young people in Europe
In this paper combinations of working and learning during the transition from school to work within Europe are investigated. Three 'double status positions' are distinguished: dual system students, working students and studying workers. For the empirical analysis, data from the European Union Labour Force Surveys (EU LFS] as held in the period
1992-1997 were used. The occurrence of double sta tus positions varies between institutional con texts. Dual system participation is most com m on in countries characterized by an occupati onal labour market structure. Working stu dents are most frequently found in countries with an occupational labour market structure as well. Continuing training during early wor king life is most often observed in countries dominated by internal labour markets, which is understandable from the little attention to occupation-specific skills in initial education there. In Southern Europe, double status posi tions of any type hardly exist.
Competencies and skill gaps of callcenter agents
Knowledge and skills are necessary to adequa tely perform in a job. Such competences may be acquired during initial education, but it is also possible to obtain them by work-related training. Callcenter employees mainly depend on the latter way, since there is no initial edu cation for callcenter employees. Our research on 525 callcenter employees and their mana gers shows that the educational backgrounds of these employees are very diverse, both in their level and in their field of study. In general, employees sufficiently dispose of those compe tences that are important in their jobs, like customer friendliness, basic conversational techniques, problem solving capacities, and computer skills. It is surprising that no large differences in competences are found between the higher and the lower educated. Still, some callcenter employees struggle with skill gaps. It is particularly in the competences 'telepho n ic sales techniques', 'product knowledge', and
Summaries
'company knowledge' that many employees fall short. Employees who followed additional training have smaller skill gaps than employ ees who did not. Finally our research shows that less competent employees are more likely to consider a job elsewhere. This implies that callcenters are not punished with a larger turn over if they were to invest in their employees' competences.
Welfare states, care systems and care packages
This article focuses on two issues concerning care systems of welfare states and of families by way of cross-national comparison. The first issue deals with the relationship between wel fare states' generosity in social security and so cial care. Do welfare states perform equally well in both areas of public provisions or do some countries perform better in one of these provisions? The second issue concerns the way working mothers package care given the cha racter and size of public childcare in welfare states. The relationship between social securi ty and social care will be answered at the ma cro-level of social policy; in which way do wel fare states support care and how is this related to the modernization of gender relations? A se cond macro-level comparison focuses on the variety of familial care in European welfare sta tes, in particular the assumptions of welfare states' social policy and legal rules towards the family. Finally individual care packages of wor king mothers of pre-school children in three European countries will be presented in order to see how daily practices are given shape in the context of care policies of welfare states.
Work and care in European perspective. Work patterns of working parents
The increase of dual-earners is an important trend on the European labour market. Dual earners, in particular couples with children, vary in their working time patterns. In this ar ticle work patterns of working parents in the Netherlands, Italy, the United Kingdom and Sweden are compared. These four countries
not only differ regarding their welfare state re gime and public policies but also in the degree of employer support for working parents. In this article we focus on four possible argu ments working parents could use to choose a specific pattern in the division of paid work. The four arguments deal respectively with hu man capital, economic necessity of two in comes, availability of provisions, and norms and values on work and family. The work pat terns of working parents in the different coun tries show that the one-and-a-half earner m o del (men full-time, woman part-time] is domi nant in the Netherlands. Swedish parents pre fer a pattern in which both have a full-time job. In Italy the one-earner model is most preva lent. British couples with children show the most variation: besides a large group of one- and-a-half earners, there is also a group of dual-earners in which both partners have a full-time job and a group of one-earner fami lies. In the discussion the four arguments are related to the work patterns found in the diffe rent institutional contexts.
Is part-time work (Im)possible for medical specialists?
Because of the substantial increase in the num ber of female physicians and medical specia lists, more part-time jobs are needed. Although part-time jobs became very usual in the Net herlands in the last decade, and opened the doors to the labour market for many women, part-time working in medical care is confron ted with resistance. In the medical culture long working days and continuity of care is usual. In this article the research on the effects of part-time working for specialists and for hospital organisations is reviewed. Many pu blications on part-time working in health care turn out to be based on opinions and not on empirical studies. This last type of research shows that under some conditions part-time working and continuity of care certainly can be realised. More evidence based research on the positive and negative aspects of part-time working in different specialties and hospitals is needed.
