EMPLOYABILITY AND SECURITY IN A FLEXIBLE GLOBAL LABOUR MARKET changed? Is it possible for unions to create the circumstances in which employers are enthusiastic about training? That would be great, but I fear we both need legal support.’ Mr Habenicht pointed out that Germany has had a tradition of in-company training for eight hundred years.‘Since the 12th century merchants have been teaching young people how to transact business. At the beginning of the twentieth century the German dual system was modernised successfully. But during the last twenty to thirty years we have seen new phenomena: the globalisation of industries, the technological revolution. It is clear that such changes demand a transformation of our existing education systems. So many things are integrated now. It is important that we do not allow our vocational training systems to become obsolete’. Forcing the issue ‘Ultimately it is simply a question of money. Companies are pushing away their training responsibilities, arguing that money is not available and that shareholder value is more important. That is a good reason why we need government regulation. But there is no single solution. We need to find some middle ground. I believe that the German government is ambivalent about further training. Like the British government, it is reluctant to impose more regulation and to force companies to put more money into training.’ Antje Schumacher, of the policy and planning department at VERDI, agreed with this assessment.‘How do we get employers to agree to help pay for further training? How do we convince them that it is in their own economic interest and force them to invest in their workforce? I don’t know. Perhaps collective agreements, such as the one IG Metall negotiated in Baden-Württemburg, can be a model.’ It was agreed that both countries need new initiatives, but that these should not be pursued in ignorance of what was happening elsewhere. The conference had highlighted a number of key differences between the environments in which British and German trade unions sought to defend and promote their members' interests. But the growing importance of the European and global contexts meant that these differences were dwarfed by the challenges the two movements faced in common. The conference was seen by all delegates as just the first stage in what needed to be a continuing process of mutual learning and dialogue. 41 © Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society