The Difficulties and Importance of Transferring Technical Skills Between Generations
September 22 (Thursday) 2005
Shingo Okuma
Research Associate
SUMMARY
- The Danger of the Dissipation of Technical Skills in Japan
- When speaking of technology transfer, issues such as the cross-license of Microsoft and domestic IT companies, overseas foreign direct investment (FDI) (e.g. establishing local factories and organizations), and other examples of international technology transfer are commonly raised. However, behind these issues, the domestic dissipation of technology-e.g. technical skill-is becoming an increasingly serious problem. If the present situation continues, Japan will most likely be unable to maintain its status as a “manufacturing superpower”.
The scene of technical skill dissipation is that of the generational divide between the younger generation, presently in their 20s and 30s, and the older generation, now in their 50s and 60s. The drifting away from technical occupations by the former, combined with a drawn-out recession and the resultant difficulty of employment for recent graduates, has resulted in a lack of cultivation of young technicians. As for the latter, it is unlikely that veteran engineers will be able to pass on their skills before the full-scale retirement of baby boomers that will begin around 2007. - Accordingly, cultivating young human resources in technical fields and passing on the technical skills of veterans are urgent problems for Japan's manufacturing industry. In response to this, there are many nationally based efforts currently being made.
Efforts in Cultivating Young Technical Personnel
The Industrial Technology Fellowship Program run by the National Economic Development Office (NEDO)-an extra-governmental organization affiliated with the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI)-aims to cultivate young personnel in technical fields. After consulting with a training organization, those targeted by the program draw up a curriculum for developing technical skills and apply for NEDO. If they pass the application procedures and screening, NEDO officially consigns the skill-development programs for the applicants to the previously consulted training organization. The contents of such training include R&D fields-such as life science, information and telecommunication, and technology-as well as commercially viable services including the transfer of technology, management of technology (MOT), intellectual copyrights, and intellectual foundation.
The goal of the “Human Resources Business Program for the Transfer of Technology”, run by NCIPI (National Center for Industrial Property and Information, an affiliate of the Japan Patent Office) is to facilitate the cultivation of young personnel for the transfer of technical skills through patent circulation and trading. Patenting tacit skills of veteran engineers and utilizing joint intellectual foundations are also effective measures being conducted to prevent the dissipation of technical skills.
Other programs related to the cultivation of young personnel for the purpose of technical skill transfer include: Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)'s “Personnel Development Program for the Creation of New Businesses”; and Tokyo University's Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology's “Open School for Advanced Intellectual Property Personnel” (also known as the “Tokyo University Program for the Cultivation of Advanced Research Personnel”, part of the “Intellectual Personnel Development Program”).
Organizations Related to the Transfer of Veteran Technical Skills
As one part of the “Tokyo Institute of Technology TLO Method” developed by the Association for the Promotion of Science and Engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology's Technology Licensing Organization (TLO), activities are being pursued to allow veteran workers, primarily those who have retired from small and midsize businesses in the Ota Ward of Tokyo as well as other neighborhoods, to pass on their know-how to university students.
At the joint company OJT Solutions co-founded by Toyota and Recruit, consultant projects are using Toyota's kaizen-style production methods to guide client companies (including non-manufacturing businesses). The kaizen trainers sent to the client companies are veteran skilled workers, who have first-hand experience with Toyota's long years of shop-floor kaizen and who have retired or are nearing retirement age.
At METI's Committee for the Training of Manufacturing Personnel, the application of “Instructor Training for the Transferal of Manufacturing Knowledge” is being investigated. By training primarily baby boom-generation veteran manufacturers as instructors, the program's goal is for veteran's know-how, technical skills, and tacit knowledge to be passed on to the next generation.
As a preliminary survey for the instructor program, the Committee conducted a “Survey Regarding Instructor Training for the Transfer of Manufacturing Knowledge”. The questionnaire survey was conducted on 71 primarily manufacturing companies. According to the results of the survey, a need for instructors was present in 37 out of the 71 companies. The average salary thought appropriate for instructors was \3,895,882. Furthermore, the companies' greatest needs were for management expertise training for quality and operation management, troubleshooting know-how, and instruction in the superior intuition and techniques of master artisans.
Future Issues
Each of the aforementioned approaches is steadily producing results, but all are just barely scratching the surface of industry needs. As a result, swift measures to counter the dissipation of technical skills are not keeping pace, and there is a palpable sense of continually playing catch-up. In actuality, regardless of these approaches, technical skills have already been lost or are in the process of becoming so in a number of fields. The reason for this lies in a lack of investment in human capital by way of the intergenerational transfer of technical skills. Compared to the material capital of machines and facilities, the development of human resources-e.g. investment in human capital-requires an excessive amount of funding and time.
Efforts are now being made regarding the intergenerational transfer of skills within private enterprises as well, but the dissipation of skills is a macro problem; as such, without cross-business measures that tear down the current framework of human resources, it will be very difficult to produce results.
Presently, it is true that investment in measures to counter the dissipation of skills relies entirely upon the state, but as previously mentioned, there are restrictions to the swift responses that the state is able to promote, given its limited budget. In response to this, what these findings call for is the participation of the private sector. Of course, it is necessary to provide a profitable incentive to encourage the participation of private enterprises, but like the positive results of OJT Solutions introduced above, as well as the survey results of the Committee for the Training of Manufacturing Personnel, this also heralds the knocking of new business opportunities. At the same time, however, human resources-just like the natural environment-are the common resources of society as a whole, and it is necessary for every member of society to realize the importance of paying their share to prevent these resources from disappearing.
