Further Training Policies in Home Service Sectors. The Influence of Market Structure and Social Dialogue in France and Belgium
This article raises the issue of further training policies negotiated by social partners in the French and Belgian home service sectors. Particular attention is paid to the career pathways available for home cleaners. These pathways are almost inexistent in Belgium but well-designed in the French sector. Our qualitative comparative analysis shows that two main factors explain the difference in how both home service sectors view further training. The first relates to the type of state-subsidized activities with a view to promoting home services and reducing unemployment. Unlike Belgium, the French government has introduced home help and child minding as part of the home service sector. Since the Belgian providers under the service voucher system (‘titre-service’) do not offer any of these home services, they have no interest in promoting further training leading to a qualification. In France, employers in the personal service sectors have supported the implementation of relevant sectoral training arrangements enabling home cleaners to move towards home help, child minding, and even beyond both these natural career pathways. The second explanatory factor involves the structure of sectoral social dialogue. In Belgium, the concentration of home cleaners in a single specific bipartite committee makes it difficult for the sectoral social partners to construct professional pathways. In France, the economic and political competition between the three sectors of associations, for-profit companies, and household employers stimulates the willingness of social partners, foremost employers, to develop consistent sectoral training policies. The negative effect of this competition is however the reluctance to organize cross-sector mobility of skills and qualification.