Spanish trade unions and the provision of continuous training : Partnership at a distance

The paper examines the role of trade unions in the provision of continuous training. It first reviews the literature in this area and then considers evidence from a study of trade union involvement in the Spanish national training system managed by the social partners. The study finds that union involvement has led to improved training access for workers in SMEs in large part because of the union role as training provider and has contributed to social dialogue at sectoral and national level but has had a limited impact upon training in larger enterprises. The paper argues that an enterprise‐based social partnership model built around an independent union agenda for training has limited relevance for SMEs and that a more realistic approach is the development of sectoral social dialogue, “partnership at a distance”, capable of delivering outcomes which can be translated to the point of production.