Abstract
Purpose- The goal of this article is to prove that e-learning, in union with another variable, builds a statistically significant relationship for estimating improvements in employment security, i.e., transition to employment of the same or higher job security as the previous year. Design/methodology/approach- Using data from Eurostat 2007-2013 in 28 European countries, and after carrying out analysis of 261 regression models between the e-learning variable, along with another variable related to working conditions, education, or e-skills levels of citizens. Findings- This study provides evidence about: i) there is a statistically significant relationship (p-value<0.05) between employment security (dependent variable), e-learning and another variable (independent variables) in 60.7% of 28 European countries analyzed (p-value<0.05 for at least one of these two independent variables); and ii) there is a statistically significant relationship (p-value<0.05) in 75% of 28 countries (p-value<0.1 for at least one of these two independent variables). Consequently, a set with the minimum number of useful indicators for calculating the employment security is proposed: e-learning, labor transition, tertiary education, temporary employees, e-job search and e-skills. Implications- Moreover, several similarities between studied countries are found, helping to formulate various recommendations based on complementarities between being an employee and using lifelong e-learning systems as a way for improving employment security. Originality/value- This is one of the first studies to provide evidence of the relationship between e-learning and job security in Europe, in view of this, it should be considered as a key element and essential to any European policy related to work.
Implications and Conclusions
The article has studied the relationship between the e-learning variable and different variables associated with working conditions, education and skills to use ICT, in their complementarity for calculating and estimating improvements in employment security. Employment security is understood as a transition to the same or higher job security as the previous year. The data analysis has demonstrated that this complementarity exists in most of the European countries analyzed, so employment security can be calculated with high levels of statistical significance.
In the sense of being able to analyze in more detail the situations observed here, it is important to note the differences between various concepts related to worker security in his/her workplace: thus, employment security/insecurity, job security/insecurity, labor market security/insecurity are intrinsically related concepts. Moreover, aspects related to the specific trends in labor markets and their influence on the security of maintaining jobs, as well as the security of working conditions of jobs, must be also taken into account.
From this perspective, the research undertaken has considered employment security closely linked to the field of employment or labor market security, in which different personal skills for finding and obtaining alternative employment to existing or to non-existent are key (Anderson and Pontusson, 2007). The availability of official, comparable and linear data for statistics through Eurostat has been the determining factor throughout the research.
