Varieties of Qualifications, Training, and Skills in Long-Term Care: A German, Japanese, and UK Comparison

This article considers the systems of qualifications and training in the long-term elderly care sector in Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Each country faces similar challenges of coping with increasing demand and securing staff for quality and cost-effective care. However, the three countries organize qualifications and training in very different ways. In the case of formal care workers, there is a hierarchy of training and skills, with Germany at the top, Japan in the middle, and the United Kingdom at the bottom. However, comparing the whole workforce, Germany has developed a dualistic structure with both highly and lowly trained workers; Japan has developed a relatively large proportion of moderately trained and qualified staff; and the UK workforce consists of a relatively large proportion of lowly trained and unqualified workers. Explanations are considered and implications offered for human resource management.