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Temporary Employment and Employability: Training Opportunities and Efforts of Temporary and Permanent Employees in Belgium

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  • Anneleen Forrier
  • Luc Sels

Abstract

‘Lifetime employability’ is often put forward as an alternative to lifetime employment with the same employer. At first sight, temporary employment relations and employability go hand in hand. Temporary employment is less dramatic when it is linked to a higher employability. Opponents, however, claim that temporary employment and employability are at odds. They argue that both employers and temporary employees may be faced with dilemmas relating to the enhancement of employability through training. In this article, we deal with this question. We study the training efforts of temporary and permanent employees as well as the training opportunities offered by their respective employers. Moreover, we differentiate between different groups of temporary employees. We study this in the Belgian institutional setting. The results indicate that, although temps do largely take responsibility for their own training, they get fewer opportunities to enhance their employability than do permanent employees.

Suggested Citation

  • Anneleen Forrier & Luc Sels, 2003. "Temporary Employment and Employability: Training Opportunities and Efforts of Temporary and Permanent Employees in Belgium," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 17(4), pages 641-666, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:17:y:2003:i:4:p:641-666
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017003174003
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Hanzla Ahmed, Shahid Nawaz, Muhammad Imran Rasheed, 2019. "Self-efficacy, Self-Esteem, and Career Success: The Role of Perceived Employability," Journal of Management Sciences, Geist Science, Iqra University, Faculty of Business Administration, vol. 6(2), pages 18-32, October.
    2. International Labour Office., 2012. "Global employment trends for youth : 2012," Global Employment Trends Reports 994802013402676, International Labour Office, Economic and Labour Market Analysis Department.
    3. Nikos Bozionelos & Konstantinos Kostopoulos & Beatrice van Der Heijden & Denise M. Rousseau & Giorgos Bozionelos & Thomas Hoyland & Izabela Marzec & Piotr Jędrzejowicz & Olga Epitropaki & Aslaug Mikke, 2016. "Employability and Job Performance as Links in the Relationship Between Mentoring Receipt and Career Success. A Study in SMEs," Post-Print hal-01294990, HAL.

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