This guide on innovation is one of the products of the LEONARDO-project NOVALOG. The cases are spread over various EU-countries. Various consortium members of NOVALOG were responsible for supplying some of the cases: AFT (cases for France, Spain, Greece, Portugal), DTI (cases for Denmark, Sweden, Finland, UK), FAS (cases for Ireland), SEOR (cases for the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria) and the University of Veszprem (cases for Hungary). Co-ordination and editing of the guide have been performed by Arie Gelderblom, Jaap de Koning and Connie Sintnicolaas of SEOR.

The presentation of cases would never have been possible without the help of various persons who supplied information about these cases, some of them by participating in an interview. We would like to thank everyone who contributed to this guide on innovation. We hope that the cases in the guide can inspire those working in the field of training and employment in logistics and give them ideas how to develop new initiatives or how to tackle problems.

This guide on innovation contains a number of case descriptions about new developments in training and employment. The cases refer to initiatives and developments at company, sectoral and national level. These cases can be used by any actors involved in training and employment matters at European as well as national and company levels. They can provide inspiration on how to develop new initiatives, but also present problems related to these types of initiatives and ways to cope with these problems.

The following figure establishes the links between the guide on innovation and the other products.

Figure 1 Links between the Guide on Innovation and the other products

What do we mean by innovations?

In our definition innovations are new developments in a training system or employment arrangements which have a potential of increasing the quality or efficiency of a system and have the potential to be applied on a wider scale. Most of the cases refer to innovations in training systems, but some refer to employment, for example (new) sectoral institutions, systems of job descriptions or job mobility.
Regarding the "new" element in the definition, it does not necessarily mean that the innovation is a novelty that has never been performed elsewhere. We will also discuss innovation when an existing problem solving strategy is transferred to an entirely new context. Examples are a transfer of certain developments towards countries with less developed training systems and a transfer of developments towards small and medium-sized companies that traditionally stay behind in training activities. In the latter case, the application should be relatively new in the specific context of small and medium sized companies, and could already be in use in larger companies. In these circumstances we will give much attention to the specific conditions that need to be in place to make the new developments a success in the specific context of small and medium sized companies. "New" can also refer to a combination of existing elements in a new arrangement. An example of this type of combination is the case of DEKRA in which individualised training of unemployed people is combined with e-learning.

The potential to be applied on a wider scale is integrated in the definition, because for the goal of this guide, it is important that the cases can inspire others to implement comparable developments in their own situation. To be considered innovative it is important that the knowledge it produces is liable to be used by others. The cases should have the potential to be transferable to other situations, for example other companies or other countries. Therefore, we have also included a specific heading "transferability" in the format of the cases.
Training and employment in logistics comprises complex systems involving institutions at different levels such as company, training institute, sectoral and even national level. Because many actors may be involved, the levels of the innovative cases may also vary. These innovations can occur at company level, course level, sectoral, regional or national level. The cases contain examples of all these levels.

Regarding the contents of the innovation, we also use a broad scope. An innovation is not restricted to technical developments, such as e-learning, but includes new developments in the contents of training courses which reflect the changes in the profile of professions that are being considered. Another example of an innovation is if the combination of the actors involved is new; for example a new involvement of companies or social partners in the development, or dissemination of a course. The innovations are classified in five main categories:

1. Organizational innovations. This category refers to organisations facilitating the execution of a job / function studied, specific structures of training supplied or to specific conditions relating to its development.
2. Political innovations. Political innovations refer to policy initiatives in the field of employment and training by social partners, national, regional or local policy makers or other public bodies. These policies facilitate the execution of the jobs/functions studied or support or create training provision.
3. Technical innovations. These are distinguished on the basis of the tools used for training purposes.
4. Training content and / or pedagogical approach. Training contents refers to the subjects and area covered by the training. By the pedagogical approach we refer to the way the educational process is organised.
5. Other types of innovations. It is possible that certain types of innovation are still not included in the categories mentioned above. An example is specific group targeting.