Making visible the role of vocational education and training in firm innovation: evidence from Spanish SMEs

Eneka Albizu, Mikel Olazaran, Cristina Lavía and Beatriz Otero

European Planning Studies, 2017, vol. 25, issue 11, 2057-2075

Abstract: The interactive learning model argues the importance of incremental innovation, linked to production activities, and the role in that innovation of qualified workers – including those with a vocational training degree – in opposition to the supremacy of scientific personnel that tends to characterize high-tech industries. However, scarcely any attention has been paid to the role of intermediary workers in innovation processes. This study, based on a survey of 1142 Spanish industrial small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), examines the degree to which technicians and employees with a vocational education and training (VET) profile are represented in these firms and their involvement in innovation activities. In order to identify the importance of the factors studied in a multivariate model, a binary logistic regression was performed with an index of VET workers’ participation as a dependent variable, segmenting the companies by technological level. The study shows that for sectors with greatest R&D intensity, the presence of VET personnel in technical posts and the existence of external co-operation in innovation were found to triple the probability of greater participation. In more low-tech sectors, these variables continue to exercise a strong influence, but the multiplier effect of another two has also been detected, specifically the innovative capacity of the company and a greater level of involvement of operators in organizational learning practices.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2017.1281231

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