new competencies and
innovations in logistics

In Luxembourg labour market survey data according to occupation is available from the national statistical office. However, due to the small size of the sample, only a disaggregation in 2 digits is available. Labour market figures according to sector can be found, however, the combination of ISCO and sectorial analysis is not available, because of sample size.

There is no evidence of data concerning the unemployed figures broken down into areas of occupations. This is not that surprising, because the absolute and relative unemployment levels are very low, which makes a disaggregation of these numbers less logical. Contacts made at the chambers of commerce confirm that there are also no relevant statistics available at a sectorial level.

The central source for statistics in Luxembourg is the statistical office STATEC who produce an annual labour market survey. This data can be split by occupation. However, because of the small sample size, only a subdivision at ISCO level 2 can be achieved as presented in the following table.

The STATEC (Service central de la statistique et des études économiques) web site (http://www.statec.lu) offers details of the distribution of total employment by sector.

Statistical information is collected above all by direct surveys, carried out either on a regular or an ad-hoc basis, on households and firms:

• general population census
• annual and monthly surveys on firms (employment, salaries, production figures, investments, imports and exports)
• opinion surveys of heads of firms

In an attempt to reduce the number of surveys carried out, STATEC uses, as far as possible, administrative sources of information, such as:

• national listing of individuals and legal entities
• certain social security and administrative listings
• births and deaths register

The total number of employed in 2001 given in this data is higher than in table 2.1, namely 277 thousand workers. A possible explanation for these higher numbers is that workers residing over the border are also included in these figures. Luxembourg has relatively many workers who come from neighbouring countries.

The proportion in total employment of the selected sectors are as follows:

• Manufacturing of transport products: 0%
• Manufacturing of chemical products: 0.6%
• Manufacturing of electric and electronics products: 0.8%
• Commerce and repair: 14.1%
• Transport and communications: 8.3%

Due to the small sample size, data from the Labour Force Survey Labour Force Survey LFS can only be disaggregated according to occupation at ISCO-2 level and not be crossed by sector. This is a "structural problem" for the Luxembourg situation and will not be solved in the future years as there are no actors currently interested in improving this situation.

At a little over 400.000 inhabitants, Luxembourg is the EU-member state with the smallest population. Because of this small scale, the availability of relevant job classifications and descriptions is very limited.

Over a third of the population is originally from outside Luxembourg, primarily from other EU-countries. Luxembourg is trilingual; the official languages are French, German and Luxembourgeois. Luxembourg is a small country and depends on other countries for a lot of things. This is especially true for higher education. Logistics is hardly represented in Luxembourg, except for SOLE and a number of international organisations and companies. Examples of the latter are Kühne & Nagel and NAMSA (which is an organisation related to NATO). The only job definitions to be found in Luxembourg are those with these types of companies and other organisations that operate there.

According to a contact person, social agreements do not include logistic job definitions. The only organisation specifically working in logistics is SOLE. The Luxembourg department of SOLE became a part of SOLEurope in 2000. SOLE offers several services to members. There are two kinds of members; individuals and companies. SOLE offers them help in finding employment and professional development as well as continuing education. The Luxembourg SOLE Chapter intends to expand its membership to people currently working in or interested in the field of logistics. Although 'logistics' encompasses a broad area, SOLE is the only professional logistics organisation in Luxembourg. In fact, Luxembourg is not represented in the European Logistics Association (ELA). ELA is a federation of 30 national organisations with the goal of providing a forum concerned with logistics within Europe and to assist industry and commerce in Europe. SOLE is planning to work with ELA so they will be able to profit from each other's benefits. SOLE does not offer any worked out job profiles, but rather leave that to the companies offering jobs through SOLE.

The public employment service of Luxembourg is called ADEM (Administration de l'Emploi). We have not found related job descriptions of ADEM.

4.1 Background to the educational system in Luxembourg
4.1.1 - Primary education
Compulsory education in Luxembourg starts at the age of 4 and there is even a possibility to start education at the age of 3. This is intended to build social skills in young children and to accelerate the integration of immigrant children. Primary education is conducted in Luxembourgeois, German and French. In primary schools the teaching of German and French starts from the age of 6 and 7 respectively. In the further education there is a heavy emphasis on language tuition, English, Italian and Latin, amongst others.

4.1.2 - Secondary education
Secondary education, which starts at the age of 12, is separated into two types general and technical education. 33% of pupils start general secondary and 66% technical secondary. General secondary education leads to a qualification equivalent to the German Arbiter or the French/Belgian baccalaureate, granting the holder access to higher education and university. Technical secondary education offers many different possibilities. After the first three years of general education in the technical secondary system, pupils can choose one of three paths; professional cycle, technician or technical cycle (le régime professionnel, le régime de la formation de technicien et le régime technique):

• The professional cycle (le régime professionnel) is a three-year education that teaches the basics needed in craftsmanship or trade, this is a preparation for the professional life to come. The student can either be taught in a scholastic environment or a more practical environment in the apprenticeship form.
• The education for technician (le régime de la formation de technicien) is a four-year program to train pupils to become qualified workers in the fields of: administration, commerce, agriculture, tourism, art, electro techniques, health, etc. The final diploma grants access to higher technical education.
• The technical cycle (le régime technique) is the most popular education and prepares pupils for careers in administration, technology, social work or medical work. The duration varies between 4 and 5 years according to field of interest. After obtaining the final diploma pupils can proceed to a professional career or continue education in a higher form, notably university.

4.2 Higher education
There are no universities in Luxembourg, but there are a number of higher education institutes that can provide studies with an equivalent qualification. These institutes are dedicated to teacher training. Furthermore there are some courses available that are equivalent to the first and second or third year of specific university studies.

Higher education in Luxembourg is limited to:

• Training in the field of education (Institut Supérieur d'Etudes et de Recherches pédagogiques, ISERP and Institut d'Etudes éducatives et sociales)
• Diploma for qualified technician (le brevet de technicien supérieur, BTS), a two-year education
• Short cycle for higher studies in management (Centre Universitaire)
• Four year training for qualified industrial engineer (Institut supérieur de technologie)
• Courses equivalent to one or two years of university (Centre Universitaire)

For other types of further higher education, students are obliged to study abroad. There are agreements with other European countries to allow Luxembourg students to study in those EU countries. In the year 2000 there was a total of 4400 students from Luxembourg studying at university or another form of higher education establishment in Luxembourg or in EU host countries. The largest hosts to these students are Belgium, France and Germany.

There are plans in Luxembourg to create the university of Luxembourg (l'Université de Luxembourg) in the next few years.

4.3 Logistics training
Due to the absence of higher education institutes for this area in Luxembourg, the situation regarding the field of logistics is comparable to other EU-countries, whereby students pursue general higher education. Apprenticeship programs are very limited or non-existent.

There are some organisations in Luxembourg that provide courses and seminars relevant to the field of Logistics:

• Private workers chamber (Chambre des Employés Privés)
• Luxembourg agency for the advancement of productivity (Office luxembourgeois pour l'accroissement de la productivité, OLAP)
• Economical interest group - continual training for engineers and management, SITEC (Groupement d'Interet Economique - Formation continue de l'ingénieur et du cadre, SITEC)

4.3.1 - Private workers chamber (Chambre des Employés Privés)
The private workers chamber is the representative body for employees in the private sector and the employees from the Luxembourg railroad company (CFL). The chamber organizes two courses with relevance to logistics:

• Methods of purchasing management (les méthodes de gestion des achats)
• Third cycle university course on enterprise management (troisième cycle universitaire en management d'entreprise).

4.3.2 - Luxembourg agency for the advancement of productivity (Office luxembourgeois pour l'accroissement de la productivité)
The OLAP is an agency that aims to stimulate the professional development of employees through continual education. The OLAP organises four one and two-day seminars that are relevant to Logistics in continuous vocational education (la formation professionnelle continue):

• Selecting supply sources (choisir ses sources d'approvisionnements)
• The efficient buyer (l'acheteur efficace)
• Supply without inventory (l'approvisionnement sans stocks)
• Modern inventory management (la gestion moderne des stocks).

4.3.3 - Economical interest group - continual training for engineers and management, SITEC (Groupement d'Intérêt Economique - Formation continue de l'ingénieur et du cadre, SITEC)
Sitec (http://www.sitec.lu) is an interest group whose aim it is to aid engineers and managers in keeping up to date with innovations and technological developments. It is an organisation devoted to continual education for people in technical and managerial occupations.

SITEC organises several training courses with relevance to Logistics:

• Training cycle "logistics support": Trainees : directors, logistics heads, production managers and planning managers.
• Supply chain management : Trainees : directors, logistics heads, production managers and planning managers.
• Stock management : Trainees : persons managing stock, technician, warehouseman, workshop manager, stock controller, production manager.
• Reactivity or acceleration of flow : Trainees : all managers of production facilities.
• The production management game : Trainees : directors, production managers and/or distribution managers, buyers, supply managers.

4.4 The international society of logistics, SOLE
SOLE plans to support the non-profit service association Luxembourg Senior Consultants in creating the "Academy for Logistics" to facilitate Internet based logistics training opportunities. When this comes to fruition logistics training will come available in Luxembourg through e-Learning.

An international organisation active in Luxembourg is NAMSA, which supplies logistic services for the armed forces of NATO countries. Within NAMSA function profiles have been developed for an number of logistic jobs.

We have not found general job profiles in logistics, which can be explained by the small scale of the country. Although there are some courses in the area of logistics (mainly continuing training courses) these are not linked to worked out profiles of jobs. The only real job profiles concerning logistic can be found in big international companies and organisations like NAMSA.