Title: Engineering education and training in small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in Japan

Authors: Kosaku Harada

Addresses: Senior Managing Director, Japanese Society for Engineering Education, c/o Kuramae Kogyoukaikan, 19-10 Shinbashi 2-chome, Minato-Ku, Tokyo 105, Japan

Abstract: Japan|s industrial structure comprises mainly small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises, which account for more that 99% of all factories and contribute to the expansion of the Japanese economy by forming a huge subcontracting structure. However, almost all of these companies have common problems, one of the biggest being the difficulty in recruiting and developing the personnel necessary for the expansion of the business. This paper describes the patterns of recruitment and personnel development in small manufacturing firms, and presents some of the information available in published reports from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Japanese Society for Engineering Education.

Keywords: small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; Japanese manufacturing industry; recruitment; skilled personnel; skills retention; personnel development; Japan; engineering education.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCEELL.1991.030354

International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life-Long Learning, 1991 Vol.1 No.2, pp.136 - 150

Published online: 15 Dec 2009 *

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