An investigation of formal education in small and medium-sized enterprises was partly overshadowed by the presence of a very informal training culture in Norway. In a paper produced for the EU research project Lifelong Learning 2010, Fafo-researcher Odd Bjørn Ure summarizes six case studies leaning on larger surveys of training patterns in Norwegian industries. When asking SME managers how formal education fits into their enterprise strategies, the mix of formal, non-formal and informal training came to the forefront, while the presence of a distinct strategy for formal education was refuted. The observed informality is partly rooted in relations of trust often found in local industrial areas with limited fear of competitors ‘poaching’ highly trained employees. Employers tend to finance formal education without neatly assessing whether it strictly falls in line with company needs. The study therefore reobserved the nebulous borderline of training for the company vs. training for personal upskilling.
