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. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.