COMPETENCES WITHOUT NIGHTMARES
Trevor Boutall

For a generation the professional training system in England was based on the National Occupational Standards. The target of the National Occupational Standards system is to render workers at all levels able to carry out their roles and act independently in making decisions within the limits of their responsibilities. This system has definitely not solved all the problems of the United Kingdom. There are still a lot of safety problems - railway accidents, scandals in social security services and in the medical assistance program, non-ethical habits in banks and insurance companies - due in part to market liberalization, the state agency privatization and the shareholders' pressure to increase profit, an insistence that endangers the medium-long range service quality, especially compromising safety. On the bright side, however, the quality of public and private service has consistently increased, the competitive role of the United Kingdom within the global market has been left untouched despite the progress of the new economies and the unemployment rate is one of the lowest in Europe. The most remarkable impact of the new English training system can be noticed in a more flexible approach both by the employer and his employees. The market - the external context - is constantly changing, and there is the need to promptly respond - or better prevent - changing company’s targets, the work processes and the behaviors, renewing the knowledge and the skills of all the human resources.